A bird watcher has sighted a migratory bird Amur falcon, whose breeding place is Mangolia, at Kulai here. Conservationists, especially in Nagaland in the North-East, have been making efforts to protect it from hunters as Amur falcons migrate in large numbers during winter to the North-East.
According to Shivashankar, a bird watcher and co-author of the book, Birds of Southern Coastal Karnataka, Ashik, a bird watcher, spotted the bird at Kulai at 5.51 p.m. on Wednesday. “This is the first sighting of Amur falcon in this coastal belt during the current migratory season, and it is in Mangalore,” Mr. Shivashankar told The Hindu .
Amur falcon had been spotted in the coastal belt in the earlier years also, he said.
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“Amur falcons are protected in the North-East from being hunted. These birds migrate through the North-Eastern States to Karnataka and Maharashtra and head towards South Africa,” he said.
Mr. Ashik, an employee of the New Mangalore Port, said that he watched birds at Kulai usually every mornings and evenings. He spotted the single Amur falcon at Kulai on Wednesday evening and photographed it.
Mr. Shivashankar said that Prashanth Krishna had spotted it at Gampe Hill, near Kasaragod, on December 12 last year. Raj Mohan had found it in Karkala on November 18, 2012 and Ramit at Udupi on November 4, 2012. It had been found in Karwar on November 14, 2008 and at Trasi on November 1, 2009.
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A bird watcher from Udupi, Srikanth Nayak, who is a volunteer for Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru, and who spent a month on estimating (counting) migratory birds in Assam and Meghalaya, said that Amur falcon bred (breeding place) in Mangolia.
They preyed on insects and termites. When the winter started, they migrated via Russia, China to the North-East and migrated to South Africa through other Indian States. Mr. Nayak said that he returned from the North-East on Wednesday.