AMUR FALCON

The Amur Falcon

The Amur falcon makes one of the longest migrations of any raptor on Earth, traveling from breeding grounds in East Asia (China, Mongolia) to wintering grounds in southern Africa — a journey of up to 22,000 kilometers round trip. These small, agile falcons feed primarily on insects, particularly locusts and other agricultural pests, making them valuable to farmers.

In 2012, a massive slaughter of Amur falcons was discovered in the Indian state of Nagaland, where hundreds of thousands of birds were being netted and killed during their migration stopover. The discovery shocked the world. Conservation groups and the Indian government intervened, and since then, the killing has largely stopped. Nagaland is now a flagship example of community-based wildlife conservation.

The Amur falcon population appears to be stable, but the species demonstrates how vulnerable migratory birds are to exploitation at stopover sites along their migration routes.