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Satellite-tagged Amur falcons from Manipur cross Arabian Sea to reach Kenya, Somalia
The Amur falcons, which are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, spend their summers at their breeding grounds in southeast Russia and northeast China.
Three Amur falcons (Falco amurensis), radio-tagged in Manipur’s Tamenglong district last week, have reached Kenya and Somalia on its non-stop flight after crossing the Arabian Sea, covering more than 3,000km,a senior scientist monitoring its movement has confirmed.
Dr Suresh Kumar of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in Dehradun, who had been monitoring the bird’s migratory route when contacted this morning, informed, “Apapang and Alang in Kenya while Ahu is in Somalia.”
Three satellite-tagged Amur falcons, the world’s longest flying raptors, called ‘Apapang’, ‘Ahu’ and ‘Alang’, named after a roosting site and two rivers - Barak and Irang in Manipur’s Tamenglong district - have started their migratory journey soon after being radio-tagged with satellite transmitters in Chiuluan village and released from a village in Tamenglong district on November 11, 2025.
“Apapang makes it across the Arabian Sea with ease and enters the Horn of Africa. Apapang, being an adult male, has definitely done this oceanic crossing multiple times before,” Dr Suresh said.
Apapang which had been flying non-stop from the Chiuluan stopover site (in Manipur), has covered about 6,100km in six days and over 8 hours, Suresh said.
The other two falcons - ‘Alang’ and ‘Ahu’ - are also following ‘Apapang’, flying over the Arabian Sea on Monday, according to a map highlighting the journey of these migratory birds.
These world’s longest flying migratory birds were captured from Chiuluan village by a team of Tamenglong forest division, Manipur forest department, in collaboration with WII with the support of the Rainforest Club Tamenglong (RCT) and volunteers of Chiuluan village on November 9.
The divisional forest officer (DFO) Kh Hitler Singh of Tamenglong forest division said the team captured ten Amur falcons and selected three. Satellite transmitters were attached to the falcons on their backs with teflon ribbon, with each tag weight of about 3.5gm.
The radio-tagging programme was taken up for the first time in Tamenglong district in November 2018 to conserve wildlife.
The Amur falcons, which are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and included under Schedule I, spend their summers at their breeding grounds in southeast Russia and northeast China.
They migrate to their wintering grounds in South Africa, from where they start their return journey in April-May through Afghanistan and East Asia, undertaking a yearly journey of about 20,000 km. In between, they stop in India’s northeast, where they have been killed in large numbers in recent years, and Somalia.
In their journey, these pigeon-sized birds that are locally known as ‘Akhuaipuina’ (Taomuanpui), arrive in large numbers during October in Nagaland and Manipur, besides a few places in northeast India. They leave the region in November after having enough food for their non-stop flight to Africa where they spend their winters.
