KENDRAPARA: A satellite-tagged Amur Falcon which flew from southern Africa to Odisha covering over 4,000 km last month made another 6,000 km dash in just 18 days - this time to China. The bird, named Chiuluan 2, reached Manchurian Bay in China on May 20, within 18 days after flying around 6,000 km from the forest of Odisha.
Scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) had attached a satellite transmitter on the bird on November 8, 2024, in Tamenglong district of Manipur. Suresh Kumar, a senior scientist of the Dehradun-based WII said, the GPS tracker showed the bird first travelled about 4,000 km from Southern Africa to reach Karlapat wildlife sanctuary in Kalahandi district of Odisha on April 30. It stayed for three days in forests of Odisha from April 30 to May 2.
“On May 1, its presence was recorded in a forest around 30 km from Phulbani. We also tracked the bird on May 2 in the forest of Dhenkanal district,” added Kumar. From Odisha, the falcon continued its journey, passing through the mangrove forests of Sundarbans in Bangladesh and then through Myanmar. It continued flying over Wuhan in China, crossing both the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea before finally reaching Manchurian Bay in northeastern China on May 20.
The Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis), roughly the size of a pigeon, is a long distance trans-equatorial migrant bird weighing an average of 180 gram. These birds stop in Northeast India for about two weeks from late October to November before they fly across the ocean to Africa. “As per our research, Amur Falcons typically stops in Northeast India for about two weeks from late October to November to feed on termites and gain the energy they need to fly across to Africa,” explained Dr Kumar.
In total, this bird has flown around 10,000 km within six months. The tracking effort aims to better understand the migratory behaviour of the birds and improve conservation efforts for this globally migrating species. “My core interest has been natural history, the basic understanding, especially of lesser-known and threatened avian species, their ecology, and conservation.
In the last many years, I along with my team have been involved in tracking fine-scale movements and migration of a number of species, notable among these is the study on Amur Falcons from Northeast India, and Cranes and Flamingos in the arid plains of Western India,” added Dr Kumar.