A Million Birds, One Reservoir
The numbers are almost too large to picture. Each October and November, somewhere between one and two million Amur Falcons converge on the Doyang reservoir in Wokha district, Nagaland. They arrive from breeding grounds in Siberia and northern China, and they are heading to southern Africa, a round trip of roughly 22,000 kilometres. Doyang is a pit stop, a place to rest and feed on dragonflies before the crossing. At peak roosting, the trees around the reservoir hold so many birds that branches bend under the weight. It is one of the largest congregations of any raptor species anywhere on Earth.
