Greater flamingoes, Hope Island and Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary
What is the News?
After a long a gap, a flock of five greater flamingoes has been spotted along the coast of Hope Island, a part of the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh.The long-legged and long-necked birds were last seen in a group about two and a half decades ago, while a lone flamingo was recorded in the 2016 Asian Water Bird Census at Sirra Yanam village in East Godavari district.
Greater Flamingoes
- Greater flamingo is the most widespread and largest species of the flamingo family.
- It is found in Africa, on the Indian subcontinent, in the Middle East, and in southern Europe.
- The greater flamingo feeds with its head down, and its upper jaw is movable and not rigidly fixed to its skull.
- It is listed as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary
- It is a wildlife sanctuary and estuary situated in Andhra Pradesh.
- This wildlife sanctuary is the second largest stretch of mangrove forests in India.
- It is home to the critically endangered white-backed vulture and the long billed vulture.
- The Sanctuary in the estuary of river godavari has rich mangrove vegetation.
- The sanctuary possesses a wide variety of birds, because of the feed available in the backwaters of the mangrove forest.
Hope Island
- It is a small tadpole shaped Island situated off the coast of Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh in Bay of Bengal.
- It was formed in the late 18th century, from the sediment outflow carried by the waters of the Koringa River, a distributary of the Godavari.
- The sand bars formed have gained permanence due to successive deposition of sand and alluvial silt due to meeting of the low salinity waters of the river meeting the saline waters of the Bay of Bengal.
Written By: Sai Eswar