YAKUTSK, February 3. /TASS/. Experts of the Institute for Cryolithozone Biological Studies (the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch) point to the breeding expansion of Asian dowitcher into Siberia’s taiga zone - to Yakutia’s western districts. Ornithologists forecast this rare representative of the sandpiper family will be moving towards the region’s north-east - into the Arctic districts, the Institute’s expert Yevgeny Shemyakin told TASS.

Traditionally, Asian dowitcher nests in Central Asia’s forest-steppes and steppes, in the Far East’s broad-leaved forests. From 2005, the species samples have been registered as flying into the territory of Yakutia’s Suntarsky village, in the middle reaches of the Vilyuy River valley. Scientists believe that birds come to Central Yakutia as they are attracted by the arid climate of recent years.

"They see optimal breeding conditions, which have developed in Central Yakutia," the expert said. "Central Asia, the east of Mongolia, where the birds used to nest, have been suffering [severe] drought for the tenth year. Thus, probably, traditional nesting sites are no longer suitable. The birds began to nomad and have reached Yakutia."

The first couples flew to Yakutia in 2018, when scientists began to monitor the birds. "We have noticed that the birds started nesting there. We managed to find the first chicks in 2019 already. At that time, the species has started the expansion towards the northeast. In 2021, we found distant sites in the watershed of the Vilyuy and the Lena Rivers," he added.

Dowitcher’s threats in Yakutia are birds of prey and livestock. "The nests we have found are near lakes, which are traditional places of amateur fishing, hunting for waterfowl, the main haymaking sites and pasture lands. Probably, a small number of nests may be destroyed by freely grazing horses and cows, which in June often walk into lake shallow waters, thus crossing the nesting habitats," the ornithologist explained.

Satellite transmitters

In 2021, biologists installed GPS transmitters on six adult birds to understand reasons for the long-distance and untypical spring-summer migration, to observe to where the birds migrate for the winter. Scientists can see that presently the birds are in South Sumatra in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand. The satellite communication with one of the birds ceased in mid-August, 2021, the biologist said.

"The bird flew to the Bohai Bay on the Yellow Sea coast in China on July 31, but communication with it was interrupted on August 13," he told TASS, suggesting technical problems with the transmitter.

According to Russian experts, the winter migration trajectory goes past the Yellow Sea coast in China. Birds spend about a month in China. Having gained strength, they head for the wintering grounds.

Asian dowitcher nests exclusively in Asia’s steppe and forest-steppe zones. Its global population is estimated at 23,000. It forms a fragmented and quite dynamic area. In the 20th century, the breeding groupings stably located or appeared in the Ob River upper reaches, the Yenisei upper reaches, the middle and lower reaches of the Amur. The species is listed on the Russian Federation’s Red Data Book.

Birds’ expansion

Scientists say the changing climate pushes new bird species into Yakutia. Lapwing and sandpipers settled in the region from the 1970s. They are steppe species that have fallen in love with the northern region. Nowadays, they are a common and mass species for Yakutia. Since the 1990s, chomga (great crested grebe), began flying into to Yakutia. Since 2002, the locals say, this species began to nest in the region.

Quail remains a little-studied species in Yakutia. In 2019, scientists were lucky to record quail’s specific singing - the so-called quail fight. "During the registration of birds in the meadows, three quails were identified by voice. Local shepherds confirmed they had met and heard quails in previous years. Scientists have failed to specify how quails live there, but still it is possible to assume that this species nests in that area," Shemyakin said.

In Yakutia, until recently, common moorhen was considered a new migratory species. Since 2005, it flies into the region and occasionally nests there. Azure-winged magpie’s first nests were noted near Nerungri in June 2018 - in the Yakut mid-mountain taiga on the northern spurs of the Stanovoi Ridge along the Chulman River.

In the 2000s, magpie has joined the nesting crown family birds in Yakutia’s western part. The birds have been seen periodically near settlements. For the rest of Yakutia, only twice scientists have registered magpies: in May 1993 the birds flew to the villages Kolymskoye, and on May 22-24, 2014, to Ust-May (the Aldan River’s middle course). In spring, 2021, the locals reported seeing magpies at the mouth of the Vilyuy River.