An eyebrowed wren-babbler. Picture credit: Firoz Hussain

Guwahati, Sept. 7: It was like any other birding tour for bird watcher Firoz Hussain.

The young entrepreneur had no idea that this tour at a wildlife sanctuary in Upper Assam would end with a prized click.

Jorhat birder Hussain and guide Binanda Hathibaruah managed to get the first-ever photographic evidence of an eyebrowed wren-babbler at Dehing Patkai wildlife sanctuary in Dibrugarh district on September 4 during the birding tour.

The sanctuary with an area of 111.19 square km is located in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts and is famous for Assam valley tropical wet evergreen forests bordering Arunachal Pradesh. It is among the last remaining lowland rain forests in the Brahmaputra valley and more than 380 species of bird have been recorded so far.

“I heard the calling of white check partridge. I spent more than 15 to 20 minutes time with my birding guide Binanda Hatibaruah listening. We heard the sound but could not see it. It was a bit disappointing,” Hussain said.

He, however, did not lose hope and went 500 metres ahead. “I heard a sweet sound which I had never heard and my birding guide became alert,” he said.

My guide said it was an eyebrowed wren-babbler and started playing the call sound of this bird.

He asked me to look at the bush from where the bird sound was coming. “After two or three minutes, I saw a small creature coming out. I got nervous, as it is a rare bird and started clicking pictures. I would like to give credit to Binanda for this,” Hussain said.

The bird was there only for 8 to10 seconds before it flew away, Hussain said. The time was 7.40am.

Though there is photographic evidence of eyebrowed wren-babbler from Arunachal Pradesh, it is the first time that the bird was photographed in Assam.

Bird watcher Arka Sarkar said the bird was a rarity and it was the only photograph from Assam.

Sarita Subramaniam, naturalist and bird watcher, has also confirmed on this being the first image.

The bird species is a small, almost tailless babbler with a long thin bill. It is found in the southeast Bhutan, Northeast India, east Burma, Thailand, Indochina area, south China (Yunnan to Guangxi), peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra and Java in Indonesia. Fairly common in its range, it is rare in India and only one record from Bhutan in 1939.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red list has classified it under “least concern” as the species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for vulnerable under the range size criterion.

“Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for vulnerable, ” the list said in its update this year.