Salim, Humayun, Lester to help study flamingo migration!

The Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary is home to approximately 2.5 lakh migratory birds

What do Khengarji III, Lester, McCann, Salim, Humayun and Navi Mumbai have in common?

They are all flamingos that have been tagged by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) between January-April, 2022.

Khengarji III is named after His Highness Maharajadhiraj Mirza Rao Shri Khengarji III Sahib Bahadur, Rao of Kutch who first discovered greater flamingo breeding in India. While Lester is named after the British naturalist and ornithologist CD Lester, who has extensively researched in Kutch in the 19th and 20th century.

McCann has been named after eminent naturalist Charles McCann, who visited the flamingo breeding site in Rann of Kutch in 1939 and published a detailed account.

Meanwhile, Salim is named after legendary ornithologist Dr Salim Ali, who confirmed the lesser flamingo breeding and wrote a detailed account. Humayun is named after one of the finest naturalists and ornithologists Humayun Abdulali.

Navi Mumbai is named after the satellite township of Navi Mumbai which has been branded as Flamingo City for hosting one of the largest conglomerations of these majestic birds in Asia.

BNHS scientists captured flamingos at high-tide roosting sites and tagged them using solar-powered GPS-GSM radio tags.

At present, all the flamingos are moving within Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary (TCFS) and adjoining wetlands. The TCFS is home to approximately 2.5 lakh migratory birds. Each year around 1.3 lakh flamingos also flock into the TCFS from September to May.

There are six species of flamingos known, of which two species, the lesser flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor) and the greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus), are found in India.

“The BNHS has ringed more than seven lakh birds in the last seven decades and deployed 175 Satellite transmitters on various bird species to study their migrations. During the last four years, BNHS scientists have deployed rings on more than 18,000 birds in and around TCFS. The information generated through this study is critical to understanding the migration of birds and their status in the Central Asian Flyways,” BNHS Director Dr. Bivash Pandav said.

The BNHS team, including Rahul Khot, Deputy Director, the Head of the study, Dr P. Sathiyaselvam, Deputy Director, Wetlands Programme and Mrugank Prabhu, Scientist- C, Natural History Collection Department, deployed the satellite tags while Dr Sameer Bajaru, Assistant Curator, looked after the telemetry study designand technical details.