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Eyes in the sky

MODERN TECHNOLOGY offers a way to track birds as they fly long distances on their annual migrations. While banding can provide a general idea of where migratory birds go, the precise routes they follow and where they stopover en route is often unknown. But by attaching tiny satellite transmitters to a bird, scientists can establish the bird's position and thereby watch its progress.

Although such satellite transmitters have been extensively used elsewhere to study migratory birds, its use in the Indian subcontinent has been limited. In the 1990s, a few Eurasian Cranes (Grus grus) were fitted with such transmitters.

In March 2000, Indian and U.S. scientists watched as a Bar-Headed Goose (Anser indicus), which was caught at the Keoladeo National Park near Bharatpur in Rajasthan and fitted with a satellite transmitter, flew first to the Ganga. Then, in less than 24 hours, it crossed the Himalayas and reached the Tibetan plateau.

In the autumn of 2003, the Czech Union for Nature Conservation fixed satellite transmitters on two Black Storks (Ciconia nigra) found at the river Ob in Russia's Siberian region. In the space of about two months, the two storks flew over 4,000 km to come to India, one of them going to southern Gujarat and the other to western Madhya Pradesh. One of the storks flew 675 km in a single day. But the scientists also discovered that the storks lingered for many days at various stopovers.

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