Radio-tagged falcon Chiulon returns to India after winter sojourn
Source: IT News

Imphal, April 25 2020: Amid the Covid-19 pandemic across the globe, the radio tagged Amur falcons, which flew non-stop for five days covering thousands of kilometers to reach African countries in November last year, are on their way back to India for further destination to their breeding grounds in northern China, a scientist of Wildlife Institute of India Dehradun said.

However Chiulon, a male Amur falcon, which departed from the Somalia coast on April 21, has arrived in India, says WII scientist R Suresh Kumar, who is currently monitoring the route of the migratory birds said when contacted on Saturday.

The bird is in Madhya Pradesh close to a place near Satpura tiger reserve, he said.

Radio-tagged falcon Chiulon returns to India after winter sojourn

On Friday afternoon, Chiulon was reportedly in the middle of its Arabian crossing covering a distance of 3150 km and gliding in the jet stream.

In first week of November 2019, Chiulon and four other falcons namely Puching, Phalong-both names of villages in Tamenglong district, Irang and Barak-both names of rivers of the district,all in Manipur were radio tagged with a satellite transmitters by the forest department in collaboration with WII scientists to study the flight route of these long-distance migratory birds and environmental patterns along the route.

Though all the falcons are sharing their datas during this radio tagging programme, Puching and Phalong failed to transmit any data few days after they're tagged.

Meanwhile Barak and Irang are said to be still in Somalia and waiting for their turn to fly back to India.

The birds are expected to pass the northeast soon,the scientist felt.

On the other hand Longleng, a female Amur falcon named after Nagaland's district had already arrived in India ahead of Chiulon on Thursday and flying down non-stop towards the southern India for 94 hours covering nearly 3800 km, according to the scientist.

The bird started her five day return passage from Somalia to India on April 20 flying at a speed of 45 km per hour.

In fact Longleng which was radio-tagged in Nagaland in October 2016 as part of projects to study the flight route of these long-distance migratory birds and environmental patterns along the route, arrived in India a week ahead of his previous year's schedule arrival time.