Rare Leucistic Great Cormorant Spotted at Ameenpur Lake, India's First Water Body Declared a Biodiversity Heritage Site
A near-white leucistic Great Cormorant was sighted at Hyderabad's Ameenpur Lake, which in 2016 became the first water body in India to be notified a Biodiversity Heritage Site. The bird was spotted near BHEL in Hyderabad, Telangana, by Hyderabad-born Canadian birder Raghuvamsh Chavali, its very pale plumage standing out sharply against the normally dark cormorants around it. Leucism is a partial loss of pigmentation that leaves feathers pale or white but, unlike albinism, leaves the eyes unaffected — leucistic birds keep dark eyes, while albinos show pink or red ones. Ameenpur is a freshwater lake and a long-established birding site.
Biodiversity Heritage Sites: Notified by State Governments under Section 37 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 | National Biodiversity Authority: Set up 2003, headquartered at Chennai | Telangana: Became India's 29th state on 2 June 2014, capital Hyderabad