Rufous-necked hornbill spotted in Nepal’s Illam after 150 years

KATHMANDU: Rufous-necked hornbill, a rare species of bird, has recently been spotted in Ilam, eastern Nepal.

Deven Kharel, a photographer and bird researcher, on Tuesday, witnessed a couple of rare species at Simdham of Suryodaya-1, Illam. He even took some photos of the bird known as Hanrayo in the Nepali language.

Talking to Ratopati immediately after taking the photographs, Kharel said it was his second noteworthy achievement in his whole career. 

“The bird had not been spotted for one and a half centuries. Not a single photograph of this species was not taken in Nepal,” he said. 

Kamal Maden, a biodiversity researcher, also said that Brian Houghton Hodgson had found the bird in 1829 in Nepal. Similarly, another sample, collected in 1850, is safely stored in a museum in Belgium, he added.