One of the two satellite-tagged Amur Falcons (Falco amurensis) “Chiuluan2” named after a village in Manipur’s Tamenglong district has reached its first stopover site in Somalia in five days and 17 hours after flying non-stop and crossing the Arabian Sea.
Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientist R Suresh Kumar, who is monitoring the bird’s migratory route, said “Chiuluan2” started an onward non-stop journey from Guhagar in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri on Sunday morning around 10.30am and reached Somalia on Tuesday around 7pm (India time).
Divisional forest officer Kh Hitler Singh said Guangram, another satellite-tagged female falcon, is still in the Chiluluan roosting site in Tamenglong.
The Manipur forest department, WII team, and residents released the two Amur falcons, the world’s longest travelling birds, on November 8 after radio-tagging them with satellite transmitters to study the route of the migratory birds and the environmental patterns from Tamenglong. Chiuluan and Guangram are two roosting villages of Amur falcons in Tamenglong.
Kumar said “Chiuluan2” was in the flight path of Scotora Island, which is at the tip of the Great Horn of Africa, on Monday.
The Manipur forest department and WII team also released nine other Amur falcons on November 8.
Radio-tagging of Amur falcons was taken up for the first time in Manipur’s Tamenglong district in November 2018. Five birds were radio-tagged in 2019.
Amur falcons are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act. They spend summers at their breeding grounds in southeast Russia and northeast China. The falcons migrate to their wintering grounds in Africa. They start their return journey in April-May through Afghanistan and East Asia, undertaking a yearly journey of about 20,000km. In between, they stop in India’s northeast and Somalia.
The pigeon-sized raptors, locally known as Akhuaipuina, arrive in October in the northeast including Nagaland and Manipur. They leave the region in November after having enough food for their non-stop flight to Africa where they spend their winters.
The Ninth Amur Falcon festival is scheduled at Tamenglong on November 21 as part of the state forest department’s efforts to protect these migratory birds with the support of the local bodies and residents.