Week 22-29th Feb,2016
• The birders of Goa have sighted a new bird Falcated Duck, a very rare vagrant species to the south of India, which became the latest addition to the checklist of ‘Birds of Goa’.
• The Falcated duck is a regular winter migrant to the northern States of India. They breed in Russia and north China in summers and migrates towards north of India in winter.
• Some individuals though are known to move further south. There are two reports of this species from south of India. The first was reported from Tamil Nadu in 2012 while in January 2015 a single individual was reported from Akola in Maharashtra and this sighting is only the third from south India.
• The Falcated duck is classified as near threatened in terms of its conservation prioritization by International Union for Conservation of Nature.
• Recent estimates have put the world population of this species to be just about 89,000 individuals.
• The greatest threat faced by this species globally is the loss of habitat and hunting. Loss of habitat in their winter migratory region is also a cause for concern.
• Wetlands have a very important ecological role and in Goa. Migratory birds are an important component of any wetland ecosystem. In recent years the number of vagrant migratory species visiting the State has been increasing and there could be many reasons for this.
• We need to sustainably use our wetlands to ensure that our winged visitors keep returning every year in even greater numbers. With this new sighting, the checklist of Birds of Goa stands at 461 species.