Another flamingo tagged in Mumbai lands in Bhavnagar after 16-hr-long ‘direct flight’

The flight pattern of Salim has scientists looking for answers as it is quite different from Humanyun’s.

“Salim, the lesser flamingo, named after the legendary Dr. Salim Ali, left the shores of Mumbai on July 6 evening and landed near Bhavnagar on July 7 morning, joining Humayun who had earlier reached there from Mumbai,” BNHS, the Mumbai-headquartered organisation which is among the oldest scientific institutes of India, tweeted on Tuesday.

With an aim to understand the migration of flamingos from their breeding grounds in Gujarat to their feeding grounds along the west coast of India and back to Gujarat, BNHS had tagged six flamingos in TCSF.

The tagged birds include three lesser flamingos and an equal number of greater flamingos, the other species of the family found in India. Humayun, the lesser flamingo named after Humanyun Abdulali, a renowned ornithologist who was associated with BNHS, had taken off from near Trombay on late evening of June 28.

BNHS scientists say that Humayun halted at Vasai in Maharashtra and Tena Creek near Surat before flying across the Gulf of Khambhat to reach Bhavnagar on June 30. On the other hand, Salim took off from Vashi at 4:57 pm on July 6 and landed in Bhavnagar at 9:25 AM on July 7, BNHS scientists said.

“Based on data made available by the GSM-GPS transmitter tagged to flamingo Salim, we assume the flamingo flew directly from Vashi in Thane Creek to Ghogha beach near Bhavnagar directly. The data suggests it flew nonstop for 16 hours and 28 minutes with no pit-stops to cover approximately 300 kilometre,” Rahul Khot, deputy director of BNHS’ natural history collection division said.
Salim was tagged with a solar-powered GSM(global system for mobile communication services)-GPS (global positioning system) transmitter on March 19.

Khot is leading the team of BNHS scientists who are studying the migration of flamingos through telemetry.

“Flamingos are known to fly from Gujarat to Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan or down south. But flamingos are large birds and require a lot of energy for flying,” Khot said, adding, “Salim’s is a too straight flight and it’s possible we might be missing a few data points…”

A GSM-GPS device records live location or locations at a set interval of time and transmits it to a receiver in real time while being under the coverage of the terrestrial mobile communication network.

Khot said that no tranche of data is pending for transmission from the solar-powered GSM-GPS transmitter tagged to Salim. “Factors like weather and wind could be at play. A tailwind could help a bird fly a longer distance than usual or with less amount of energy,” said Khot.
“We are waiting to see what migration route the remaining four flamingos take. Once that is available, we will have a better understanding of migration patterns of these birds,” he added.

Flamingos are gregarious birds. They forage and fly in large flocks and usually breed together in huge nesting colonies comprising thousands of nests.

The BNHS scientist said that after landing on the beach of Ghogha, a coastal port town in Bhavnagar, Salim flew further north to reach near Bhavnagar city where Humayun has been roosting since landing.

The Great Rann of Kutch is the only known breeding site of greater and lesser flamingos in India and the bird congregate there in lakhs every monsoon. Thane creek has emerged a major feeding ground for flamingos over the past two decades but Khot said bad weather was not allowing enough opportunities to observe and assess the number of flamingos still roosting there.