Biologists of the research department of the Koytendag State Nature Reserve of the Ministry of Environment Protection of Turkmenistan are considering visiting the picturesque Daray-dere gorge with a new bird species that has not been recorded in those places before.

A surprising meeting took place during one of the recent trips to monitor the seasonal state of the flora and to record the fauna species, which, as a rule, are joined by colleagues from other state reserves and biologists from the Nature Conservation Society of Turkmenistan. An ecologist of the Balkan velayat branch of the Society Hojamyrat Hojamyradov saw the unfamiliar bird while he was on the trip with a group of ecologists. To understand what kind of bird it was he had to take a picture of the fidgety creature that rapidly changed its “position” catching nimble flying food and hiding in dense foliage. Hojamyrat aga and I lingered, trying to take a tolerable picture of the quirky bird, and then for a long time we were paging the ornithological guide to all bird species that inhabit the territory of Turkmenistan.