Amur Falcon ‘Chiuluan 2’ reaches Gujarat after 3,100 km nonstop flight from Somalia

Picture credit: Manipur Forest Department/ WII

The satellite transmitter fitted Amur Falcon Chiuluan 2 has finally arrived in Gujarat. The approximate travel distance from departure from Somalia to coming close to Bharuch in Gujarat was 3100 km and Chiuluan 2 covered this distance in 67 hours nonstop flight.

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Hitler Singh from Manipur forest department said, "Based on the data received today our falcon fueled by strong winds flew at a speed of 55 km/hr in the last leg of the oceanic crossing and covered a distance of 1000 km in little more than 18 hours and entered Gujarat at 2 am today morning near Somnath and continued its nonstop flight and crossing Khambat flew past Bharuch and Ankleshwar and has not landed as per last received data."

When asked if the Amur falcon Chiuluan 2 had taken a halt, the officials said, "I am not sure, it might have taken a momentarily rest and might continue to fly. This shall be known from the next update. If the bird travels less than 500 km in 24 hours it must be taking rest for some time in the central Indian forest."

In the month of November 2024, two Amur falcon Chiuluan 2 and a female Gwangram were fitted with satellite transmitter and released at Chiuluan village in Tamenglong district of Manipur by the local forest department in the presence of Divisional Forest Officer Kh. Hitler Singh and Dr Suresh Kumar from WII. Several other Amur falcons were fitted with identification rings and released too. The main objective of the project is to study the migratory route of these birds.

It may be noted that next year also Tamenglong Forest Division, Forest Department, Manipur is planning to tag a few more Amur falcons to further strengthen the database and create more national and international awareness of the fascinating and ecologically important bird species.

The forest department along with WII had tagged two Amur falcons with satellite transmitters Chiuluan2 and Guangram. Guangram had stopped giving data while it was somewhere in Kenya.

Amur Falcons migrate from breeding grounds in eastern Asia to wintering grounds in southern Africa. To fuel up for their big open-water crossing which is the Indian Ocean, Amur Falcons stop over for 2 months in Doyang Dam Reservoir, Nagaland (INDIA). The bird is famous as it covers over 20 thousand kilometre distance between Africa and northern China and it flies over the Arabian Sea.

They migrate from Mongolia to South Africa and on their way they take halts that is why it is called passage migrant.