Great Knot | 22 Nov 2022

Why in News?

A Great knot has flown over 9,000 kilometers from Russia for a winter sojourn on Kerala's coast.

  • The migratory bird that traversed the Central Asian Flyway (CAF) is only one of the two — the other has been sighted at Jamnagar in Gujarat.

What are the Key Points about the Great knot?

  • Physical Appearance:
    • A medium-sized bulky wader with a straight, dark-brown bill and yellowish-brown legs.
    • It has a striped crown with an indistinct white eyebrow. Its upperparts are grey, with dark feather tips, its underparts are white.
    • The rump is pure white, the tail is tipped with grey.
    • Breeding plumage consists of darker upperparts with black and chestnut markings.
  • Scientific Name: Calidris tenuirostris
  • Protection Status:
  • Distribution:
    • This species breeds in north-east Siberia, Russia, wintering mainly in Australia, but also throughout the coastline of South-East Asia and on the coasts of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula.
      • In India, it is found along the coastal regions of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
    • The Yellow Sea of North Korea, South Korea and China is a particularly important stop-over site on migration in both spring and autumn.
  • Habitat and Ecology:
    • Occurs within sheltered, coastal habitats containing large, intertidal mudflats or sandflats, including inlets, bays, harbours, estuaries and lagoons.
    • Often recorded on sandy beaches with mudflats nearby, sandy spits and islets and sometimes on exposed reefs or rock platforms.

What is the Central Asian Flyway (CAF)?

  • It is a migration route, covering over 30 countries, for different waterbirds linking their northernmost breeding grounds in Russia (Siberia) to the southernmost non-breeding (wintering) grounds in West and South Asia, the Maldives and British Indian Ocean Territory.
  • CAF is among the nine flyways in the world and three of the nine flyways that pass through the Indian Subcontinent. The other two are:
    • East Asian Australasian Flyway (EAAF) and Asian East African Flyway (AEAF).
  • India has a strategic role in the flyway, as it provides critical stopover sites to over 90% of the bird species known to use this migratory route.
    • Flyways are the area used by a group of birds during their annual cycle which includes their breeding areas, stop over areas and wintering areas.

Source: TH