Chiuluan 2, a male Amur Falcon bird radio tagged in Manipur in November last year and named after a village in the state’s Tamenglong district, is on its return journey after staying for 114 days in Southern Africa, a Dehradun-based senior scientist studying the movement of the bird said.
Wildlife Institute of India (WII) senior scientist Dr. Suresh Kumar, who is monitoring the bird’s migratory route, informed, “Chiuluan 2 is now on its return journey. It has crossed Zimbabwe, Tanzania and is currently near the Kenya-Somalia border. It started its return northward route from Botswana on 8 April morning.”
Kumar said the bird, which previously left Manipur on November 8 last year, had reached South Africa on December 20 last year after an epic flight and then headed to Botswana where it stayed for more than a month.
“It spent 114 days in Southern Africa with 46 days alone in the Central Kalahari Reserve in Botswana from where it started its return journey,” Kumar said.
“I am expecting Chiuluan 2 to start on the oceanic crossing after 10 days,” Kumar added.
Pigeon-sized Chiuluan 2 was tagged with satellite transmitters in Tamenglong district and was released on November 8 last year.
On October 12 last year, two Amur Falcons had arrived from Siberia in Manipur’s Tamenglong district and were radio tagged by scientists of WII. The male bird was named Chiuluan 2 while the female bird was named Guangram, after two important roosting villages in Tamenglong district.
Chiuluan 2 passed through Bangladesh, Orissa, Maharashtra and eventually crossed the Arabian Sea to reach the Somalia-Kenya borders in the last week of November last year.
Of the behavioural pattern in the migratory routes of the Amur Falcons, Divisional Forest Officer Tamenglong Kh Hitler Singh informed, “In return journey Amur Falcon didn’t stop at Tamenglong. They will come back in October after their breeding season at Amur river region from May to October.”
Of the female bird Guangram which was also radio tagged in Manipur’s Tamenglong, Singh said, “It stopped giving satellite data while it was somewhere near Kenya in December 2024.” The female bird had gone separately and much later than Chiuluan 2.
Amur Falcons annually leave the cold harsh weathers of Siberia and Northern China when winter approaches and travel a distance of approximately 14,500 km to head for the wintering grounds in South Africa and later from April-May start their return journey, Singh said, adding the objective of the research is to study the migratory route of one of the world’s longest travelling birds.
After arriving from Siberia to make a stop-over in Nagaland and Manipur and a few other areas of North East region, the Amur Falcons, locally known as “Akhuaipuina,” roost for an average of forty-five days where they engage in feeding for the arduous journey ahead, Singh said.
