Radio-tagged female falcon returns to India after winter sojourn

A radio-tagged female Amur falcon, which flew non-stop for five days covering thousands of kilometers to reach Somalia in November last year, has returned to the Indian sub-continent on her way to her breeding area in northern China, a Wildlife Institute of India (WII) official said on Friday.

“After the long open ocean journey, the bird skirted the coastline of Diu and flew straight over to Surat instead of Mumbai,” scientist R Suresh Kumar, who is currently monitoring the route of the migratory bird, said. “Right now she is in Maharashtra,” he added.

Longleng, a female Amur falcon named after Nagaland’s district was radio-tagged and arrived in Somalia on April 18 from her winter sojourn in South Africa and started her four day return passage to India on April 29 flying at a speed of 45 km per hour, the WII scientist said.

The bird was radio-tagged in October 2016 as part of projects to study the flight route of these long-distance migratory birds and environmental patterns along the route.

The smart small raptor weighing around 175 grams, depending upon the weather condition is likely to fly across Nagaland and Manipur for her onward journey to China via Myanmar after passing through Bangladesh, Kumar said.

“It seems she is tracking Cyclone Fani,” Kumar, who has tagged 10 birds over the last five years, said. “So let’s wait and watch her next move as Cyclone Fani is heading towards her migratory route.”

Two more Falcons-Tamenglong (female) and Manipur (male), were also tagged in Tamenglong district in Manipur on November 4, 2018. Unfortunately, Manipur was found dead four days later while Tamenglong has lost contact after reaching Zambia.

First Published: May 04, 2019 09:47 IST