An unfit Sykes’s nightjar bird was rescued from Mumbai and released back into the wild after it became fit — news that has surprised many among the birding and wildlife communities in Mumbai. In 2019, the same species was spotted after 104 years in Mumbai by a birder.

Honorary Wildlife Warden of Thane and president of NGO RAWW, Pawan Sharma said, “In June-end, a bird in weak condition was handed over to our volunteer Rahul Bhosale from the domestic airport premises, found by the wildlife management staff. It was a nightjar — a nocturnal species. After rescue, the bird was examined by Dr Rina Dev, and it was diagnosed with an infection leading to dull behaviour and appetite loss. Later, we got in touch with bird experts to know the species and were happy to learn that it was a Sykes’s nightjar, which is extremely rare to be spotted in Mumbai. We treated and kept the bird under observation for 11 days at RAWW’s wildlife facility, after which it started showing improvement gradually and regained complete fitness.”

The bird was successfully released back to the wild in coordination with the forest department. Wildlife lover and birding enthusiast Akshay Shinde had spotted a Sykes’s nightjar in January 2019 at Bhandup Pumping Station. This was arguably the first sighting of the species after 104 years. According to news reports, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) collection has a specimen of the Sykes’s nightjar species that was collected in October 1915 from somewhere in Kalyan in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).