Awhite-bellied heron called out to Sarala Khaling years ago from the pages of a journal. A student volunteer at the  Natural History Museum in Darjeeling, Khaling and her friends were arranging  old  journals, when she chanced upon something about the species. She learnt that the birds were seen along the Teesta River in the 1950s. She  would later learn that its history appeared in some of the locations she has always known in West Bengal. About five to six birds are regularly sighted