The Curlew Sandpipers were tagged during a ringing exercise in the wetlands of Mumbai between December 2014 and February 2015.
Sightings of birds, especially the ones migrating in winters to Mumbai, are always known to excite bird watchers in the city. So imagine the rush of joy on spotting a bird, which was ringed or colour tagged in 2015 by scientists from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
It was during the recently held flamingo festival on April 22 that Dr Raju Kasambe, a bird expert with BNHS, spotted the Curlew Sandpipers with unique number code tags at Sewri while birders S. Krishnan and Ashwin Mohan spotted them at Navi Mumbai.
“These Curlew Sandpipers were tagged during the ringing exercise conducted in the wetlands of Mumbai between December 2014 and February 2015. The resighting of these birds in the same wetlands after two years highlights how they prefer the same wetlands. It also indicates why the wetlands of Mumbai and Navi Mumbai are extremely crucial for these birds who travel all the way from their breeding grounds in Arctic Russia to Mumbai,” shared Kasambe.
He added that the resighting of these birds reinforces the importance of ringing studies being undertaken over the years. “Bird ringing studies help to understand the paths used by birds over long journeys of migration, their stopovers and even preferences." BNHS has been ringing birds since 1927 to study migration and was also appointed as the nodal agency for bird ringing by the Maharashtra Forest Department.
According to experts, the mudflats offer a valuable food source derived from their high productivity and the resultant high quantity of prey items for fish and waterbirds, which makes mudflats significant as feeding and roosting grounds for local as well as migratory birds. “Mudflats also play a crucial role for habitat specialist waterbirds which travel over long distances by helping them gain the body mass required to complete their migratory movements. Mudflats are usually inaccessible and less disturbed which enhances their importance as resting, roosting and feeding sites for birds," said a BNHS spokesperson.
“The sighting of these ringed and colour tagged birds is of great significance as it states that they are not just casual visitors to the wetlands in Mumbai. We urge members and the birding community to get back to BNHS with information about any sightings of such tagged birds. This will be helpful in filling the information gaps in habitat preference and movement of long distance migratory birds,” noted BNHS Director, Dr Deepak Apte.
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