2020 will be a year we will all remember. While many of us were facing lockdowns and coping with a changing world, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies began a foray into using the Motus Wildlife Tracking System (Motus) to study the movement of grassland birds across their full annual cycle. Motus is made up of radio tagged animals and a large-scale network of receiver stations placed across the landscape. When a bird comes within 15 to 20 kilometers of a Motus station, a detection is recorded, and with multiple detections, we can piece together the path that bird is using.
Author, Matt Webb with a Baird’s Sparrow wearing a Motus tag.
In collaboration with state, federal and non governmental organizations we have installed 85 stations throughout the Great Plains and Chihuahuan Desert, with many more installations underway throughout this region. We are now excited to have entered a new phase of our use of the technology, with the tagging of key grassland bird species of conservation concern. Beginning in early 2023, we started tagging grassland birds, focusing our capture and tagging efforts in the beautiful Chihuahuan Desert where the birds spend their winter. We have deployed tags on 320 individuals across 5 species of declining grassland birds (134 Chestnut-collared Longspurs, 97 Baird’s Sparrows, 83 Grasshopper Sparrows, 5 Thick-billed Longspurs, and 1 Sprague’s Pipit). As we accumulate detections from our Motus stations and others across the region, the data will offer a glimpse into the mysterious migration patterns of birds as they move between their breeding and nonbreeding areas. Scientists at Bird Conservancy and beyond can use this information to better understand connections between different populations and identify the various factors driving population declines throughout the year. For instance, we may discover that individual birds from the same breeding population overwinter in different regions, exposing them to diverse pressures that could affect their survival and, ultimately, their contributions to the breeding population in the following spring and summer.
Nearly every day during the spring and fall migration season, I spend a few moments checking the Motus website to see which of our stations has logged a new detection. It’s always exciting to see in near-real-time as birds move through the region!
Sometimes the path that begins to emerge tells a story that seems bigger than just about where a bird went. Sometimes the path reveals a larger story about how we’re all connected by how we choose to interact with and live in our environment. Click on the map to see one such path.
Looking at that map, it’s not immediately obvious what I mean, but with some context you might begin to see the larger story emerge.
On a cold, cloudless morning on December 11, 2023 we tagged this Baird’s Sparrow on a partner ranch in Marfa, Texas. This partner, the Dixon Water Foundation, manages their ranch with birds in mind. They use regenerative land management techniques with the goal of enhancing biodiversity on the grasslands they steward.
A Baird’s Sparrow with a Motus tag.
This bird evaded detection throughout its spring migration, likely flying through an area that doesn’t currently have Motus station coverage, but it was eventually detected this past summer, on July 16, by a station on the Cow Chip Ranch outside Bowman, North Dakota. Cow Chip Ranch is owned and operated by Chad Njos and his family, who are long-time participants in the Audubon Conservation Ranching program. He invited us to install our Motus station on a pole in a stretch of fence not far from their home. The day we installed the station, Chad invited us to have dinner with his family, where we talked at length about the differences he has seen on his property in the years since he switched over to using regenerative land management techniques with the goal of enhancing biodiversity and working with birds in mind. We left his ranch as friends, and I feel grateful for the opportunity to have made this connection with his family.
The Motus station that was constructed on Cow Chip Ranch.
Nearly one month later, on August 12, the Baird’s Sparrow was detected in Southeast Colorado, by one of our Motus stations that resides on Rancho Largo, owned and operated by Grady Grissom, a former Board Member of Bird Conservancy. Grady invited us to install the station on his property because he has always been interested in learning more about how the birds use his property. After installing our station, he too invited us back to his house, where we discussed his ranch well into the night. He regaled us with stories about how he came to be doing what he is doing, and how using a regenerative approach of allowing the natural environment to guide his hand has resulted in higher bird densities as well as a better end product from his ranch. Again, we left as friends, and I feel incredibly grateful and better off having connected with Grady.
The Motus station at Rancho Largo.
Of course, this story is about more than just the journey of a single bird between its breeding and wintering grounds. In many ways, it speaks to the work that is at the core of Bird Conservancy of the Rockies: connecting people and places through the common thread of birds. If just one bird can bring together three land managers, one researcher and each one of you reading this post, all united by our passion for stewarding the land in harmony with nature, imagine the connections 10,000 birds could make. These connections help us to discover new ways to achieve conservation that supports both human livelihood and conservation goals. I’m excited to see what new stories will emerge as we expand the Motus program, install more stations, and tag more birds!
As the writing of this story we are about to deploy another field crew to tag more grassland bird species in the Chihuahuan Desert this winter. If you want to join our excitement and see which tagged birds passed our stations during spring migration check out our Motus project and interact with the map to see where these birds are moving on their journeys!
This article was written by Matt Webb, Senior Avian Ecologist and Motus Coordinator.
