Satellite-tagged female Amur falcon ‘Longleng’ reach Somalia

Our Correspondent

Imphal, Nov. 25 (EMN): Satellite-tagged female Amur falcon ‘Longleng’, eponymously named after a district in Nagaland which was among tens of thousands of Amur falcons after taking shelter in Northeast states, reached her stop-over site in Somalia after more than five days non-stop flight covering about 5000 km from northeast India, according to Scientist Dr. R Suresh kumar of Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun.

“Longleng reach in Somalia around 5 pm (Indian time) on Friday (November 23)” says Dr R Suresh kumar when contacted on phone.”She however continue to move and is currently located close to the famous Tsavo East NP in Kenya where is likely to spend some days.” Tsavo East National Park is one of the oldest and largest parks in Kenya.

‘Longleng’, started her journey from Assam-Meghalaya border on November 19, says Dr R Suresh who had been tracking the bird after they tagged the bird at a roost site in Yaongyimchen village in Longleng district of Nagaland on October 30, 2016. Since then Longleng made the Arabian Sea crossing for the fifth time.

On the other hand, ‘Tamenglong’ which was fitted radio transmitters along with ‘Manipur,’ a male bird on November 5 for the first time at a roosting site at Chiuluan village in Tamenglong district of Manipur, started non-stop migratory journey from November 19.But ‘Manipur’ could not join the flight to Somalia after he was killed by unidentified miscreants somewhere in Tamenglong district on November 9.

Like ‘Longleng’, now ‘Tamenglong’ also reach Somalia at around 1pm on Saturday (November 24), the scientist said.From now on the two falcons will make regular pit stops during their next phase of migration that will be another 5000 km journey to their wintering destination in South Africa.

On the importance of satellite-tagging, the scientist at WII who had so far tagged transmitters to around ten birds since 2013, said, “this enables to understand the bird and helps the conservation activities because through its migratory route we can study the environmental cue including wind pattern etc. Besides you can feel the geography of different landscapes including various wildlife protected areas of the World while tracking these birds.”

It is also equally important for the biologist and common people to understand the birds which are one of the biological indicators.

Amur falcons which are one of the least known birds among 69 falcon species, are known to breed in southeast Russia and northern China and migrate to west through India and across Arabian sea to southern Africa, making a round-trip of at least 20,000 km annually.

In their journey, these pigeon-sized birds arrive in large numbers during October in Nagaland and Manipur besides few places in north east India and left the region in November after eating enough food for non-stop flight to Africa where they spend their winter.