Until the beginning of this millennium it was believed that the Greater Flamingos at the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary (RAKWS) in Dubai and Al Wathba Wetland Reserve in Abu Dhabi came from Lake Razya in Iran.
In 2005 and 2006, the Environmental Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) and the Dubai Municipality placed satellite transmitter tags on some flamingos to track their flight patterns.
A flamingo named Sindbad, tagged at Al Wathba on November 2005, made an epic journey to the Caspian states.
Sindbad landed at the RAKWS on December 7, 2006, and spent 92 days between RAKWS and Khor Al Beidah in Umm Al Quwain.
On April 9, 2007, Sindbad flew to Iran by crossing the Arabian Gulf. A month later, it moved to Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and finally to Turkmenistan in October.
