5 August 2015 – In the last edition of our enews, we reported on five thrushes tracked from Colombia to Texas, Saskatchewan, and Ontario by researchers using the Motus Wildlife Tracking System. (For details, see our July 15 news story Secrets of Bird Movements Revealed.)
Gray-cheeked Thrush by Nick Saunders
Since our last announcement, we’ve received data showing that an additional 14 birds tagged in Colombia by SELVA passed through Indiana and Ohio on their northbound spring migration. These birds were detected by Motus stations operated by researchers from Texas Tech University and Southern Illinois University, with support from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
The research continues to yield amazing results. One of the newly detected Gray-cheeked Thrushes travelled over 3200 km from Colombia to Indiana in just 3.3 days, meaning it flew an average of 986 km a day.
In total, 19 of 67 thrushes tagged this season in Colombia have been detected so far: 14 Gray-cheeked Thrushes and 5 Swainson’s Thrushes. Visit our updated animated map to view the birds’ journeys.
