This waterbird swims with its long neck above the surface and spears fish underwater with its bill. After leaving the water, it perches on rocks or other supports and spreads its wings to dry.
Adults in the breeding season have a glossy black body with silvery-white streaks on the wings, a brown crown and neck, and a white stripe from the eye along the side of the neck. Nonbreeding adults and immature birds have duller, browner plumage than breeding adults.
Delhi’s Yamuna Biodiversity Park restored wetlands using plant communities from the Yamuna River basin. Oriental Darters have bred there since 2006, and researchers studied incubated nests during the 2011 breeding season. The park wetlands held prey and vegetation used for nesting and roosting. The study wetland covered about 2.5 ha, with depths of 2.4 m in the dry season and 4 m after the monsoon.
Eight of nine monitored nests produced hatchlings; one was abandoned within three weeks of incubation. The nests averaged 2.87 chicks hatched and 2.1 fledged. During observation hours, males fed nestlings more often than females. In 2011, nest occupancy from construction to the final fledging lasted 189 days.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Oriental Darters have been recorded breeding at Delhi’s Yamuna Biodiversity Park since 2006. The authors identify prey, vegetation for nesting and roosting, and low disturbance as features of the restored wetland landscape that support breeding there.