Kohima: Over 500 annual migratory birds Amur Falcon have arrived at the Amur Falcon Roosting Area Union (AFRAU) in Pangti village of Wokha district of Nagaland and started hovering in the sky.
According to a statement issued by AFRAU President P Thungchumo Shidio , a group of migrated Amur Falcons were seen coming to their roosting site on Saturday in the evening. He informed that viewing from the main watchtower at Tzuza Eryu, the falcons were seen flying in the sky and the best time to witness the roosting of Amur Falcons is from October 15 to 20. He said a large number of Falcons could be seen hovering in the sky as the sun began to set.
The mysterious migratory bird Amur falcon (Falco amurensis) is a small raptor of the falcon family. It breeds in south-eastern Siberia and Northern China before migrating in large flocks across India, including Nagaland and crosses over the Arabian Sea in winters in Southern and East Africa.
Amur Falcons are small but the long distant migrant bird of prey that breeds in eastern Russia and China, and annually flies around 22,000 km all the way across Asia, over the Indian Ocean to wintering grounds in Southern Africa.
Amur Falcon drew the world’s attention to Pangti Village under Wokha district where about a million raptors stop over for two months (October-November) during their 22,000-km-long yearly flights between Russia, China, and Africa.
Ornithologists have often described yearly visit Pangti by the raptors as ‘by far the largest and most spectacular roost of any species of Falcon ever seen anywhere in the world’. It has earned Nagaland the moniker–the falcon capital of the world.
