In photos: Tagged migratory birds from Russia spotted again in Mumbai mudflats

Birdwatchers in Mumbai have spotted tagged curlew sandpiper individuals, a species of migratory birds at mudflats in Mumbai again this year. The repeated sighting establishes the significance of these spots as regular resting points in an annual migratory cycle, which starts from the birds’ breeding grounds in Arctic Russia.

The curlew sandpipers were tagged in Mumbai between December 2014 and February 2015 as a part of an ongoing Bombay Natural History Society study of flyways, or the paths birds follow as they migrate, of birds visiting wetlands in India. Dr Raju Kasambe, a bird expert with the society, photographed the birds at Sewri and birders S Krishnan and Ashwin Mohan at Navi Mumbai again this year.

“The sighting of these ringed/colour tagged birds assumes great significance as it states that they are not casual visitors to the wetlands in Mumbai,” said Dr Deepak Apte, director of the BNHS, in a press release. “We urge members and the birding community to get back to us with information about any sightings of ringed/colour tagged birds. This will be helpful in filling the information gaps in habitat preference and movement of long distance migratory birds.”

The mudflats at Sewri and Navi Mumbai are well known in Mumbai for their flamingo visitors each winter. However, they also play host to a number of other local and migrant waterbird species, including the curlew sandpipers, some of which are known to travel around 15,000 km each year. The ones that travel to India cover around half that distance.

The Maharashtra Forest Department and the Mangrove and Marine Biodiversity Conservation Foundation recently gave a grant to the BNHS as a state nodal agency to map coastal wetlands in the Central Asian Flyway. The BNHS will begin a larger programme to ring bird in coastal Maharashtra from September 2017.