World Migratory Bird Day
Join us on the 13th of October as we explore the amazing migrations of birds around the world!
World Migratory Bird Day (October 10th) is an annual awareness-raising campaign highlighting the need for the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats. Many bird species undergo incredible migrations each year, travelling thousands of kms.
These migrations are full of hazards that include storms, hunting, collisions with manmade objects such as windows and wind turbines, and starvation. The risk of starvation is increasing as stopover sites are disappearing due to climate change and loss of habitat to development or agriculture.
We'll spend the day connecting with scientists and conservationists who are studying and tracking migrations as well as researching the challenges migrating birds face and looking for innovative solutions to protect them along the journey.
Annette Fayet | Tracking the Mysterious Migration of Atlantic Puffins
October 13th @ 9:00am eastern
Annette is a seabird biologist at the University of Oxford in the UK. She tracks the journeys of seabirds to discover more about their life at sea, the places they use to feed and to migrate, and the threats they face. She studies multiple species in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean, but the birds she’s studied the most are the charismatic Atlantic puffins, a key but declining seabird in the North Atlantic. In her talk, Annette will talk about her field expeditions to remote seabird islands, her discoveries on the remarkable migration journeys of seabirds, and the threats these fascinating birds face worldwide.
Welcome Dr. Annette Fayet
Lucky Peak Research Station | Songbird Banding
October 13th @ 10:00am eastern
Join Boise State University's Intermountain Bird Observatory (IBO) to learn all about their songbird banding research. We'll follow the scientists into the field to watch them study migrating birds up close at their Lucky Peak Research Station. We will get to observe as the ornithologists capture, band, measure, and weigh tiny songbirds that are migrating south for the winter, and learn how, why, and when they study birds migration.
Check out our live event from September 28th at the Lucky Peak Research Station banding birds of prey!!!
Lucky Peak Research Station | Raptor Banding
Chris Kratt makes a surprise appearance in one of our banding events with Lucky Peak Research Station last year!
Chris Kratt Surprise Students
Martin Wikelski | Tracking Bird Migrations From Space
October 13th @ 11:00am eastern
Martin Wikelski is director at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology based in Radolfzell, Germany, and professor of ornithology at the University of Konstanz. He is currently investigating global migratory patterns in animals with particular emphasis on conservation, detection of disasters, disease spread, and global change. He is leading the ICARUS (International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space) initiative, aimed at installing the “Internet of Animals” and aided by a small-object tracking system on the International Space Station.
Icarus initiative: Wildlife Observation from Space
Check out a live event with Martin from Zambia as he monitored the largest mammal migration on the planet!
Explorer Classroom | Martin Wikelski: Fruit Bats in Zambia
Sacha Dench | Conservation Without Borders
October 13th @ 12:00pm eastern
Sacha is a conservationist, adventurer and motivational speaker. Her recent groundbreaking expedition ‘Flight of the Swans’ saw her flying by paramotor from Arctic Russia across 11 countries to the UK to help save the Bewick’s swan, and has won her and her team awards for aviation, conservation and communication. When invited to set up a film unit for the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in the UK, Sacha knew she had to get herself and her camera airborne to work in remote areas. But to do that she would need to tackle her debilitating fear of flying head on. Sacha dealt with that fear, learned to fly, and went on to become the ‘human swan’ migrating over 4,000 miles from arctic Russia – the land of the nomadic reindeer herders – to the UK, dangling 1000s of feet in the air from a piece of fabric, with a propellor on her back. Her mission? To find out why the birds were declining so fast, and generate a wave of support for helping save them from people all along their flyway.
2030 Global Challenge
Benjamin Van Doren | Studying Bird Migrations
October 13th @ 1:00pm eastern
Ben studies avian (bird) migration, focusing on understanding what drives change and flexibility in migratory behavior. His recent work has focused on three major themes: (1) birds’ innate (natural) migratory programs, (2) the impact of human activity on migration, and (3) continent-scale perspectives on migration systems. Since 2012, Ben has worked with the BirdCast project to study and predict large-scale migratory movements, including research on the effects of light pollution on migrating birds and a tool to forecast nocturnal migratory movements across the United States. He’s working to unify tracking, citizen science, remote sensing, and genomic data to infer detailed behavior across large areas. In addition, Ben hope sto develop and deploy sensors to reveal individual interactions and responses to light pollution during active migratory flights.
Christian Artuso | Conserving Grassland Ecosystems for Migratory Birds
October 13th @ 2:00pm eastern
Dr. Christian Artuso is a conservationist and ornithologist with the Migratory Birds Division of the Canadian Wildlife Service (Environment and Climate Change Canada). He is particularly focused on the conservation of migratory birds and grassland ecosystems. He also sits on the Bird Specialist Subcommittee of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). He has given hundreds of presentations on natural history and conservation to a wide variety of audiences and uses blog posts (http://artusobirds.blogspot.com) and social media for outreach. Christian has trained many young biologists in field methods and identification. He enjoys travelling and wildlife photography, having photographed over 4,000 species of birds, including some of the first known photographs of rare species. His photos appear in many magazines, books, and other media.
Christian will share some of the work he has done over the years and touch on the topic of the conservation of grassland ecosystems and the particular challenges we face: why these habitats are so vulnerable; why so many grassland species are threatened with extinction; why grasslands demand innovative approaches and the role of sustainable agriculture.
Canada's Voice for Birds: Christian Artuso
Find all of these event and register here:
Why Do Birds Migrate?
There are two resources that really drive bird migration, the availability of food and nesting locations. Birds that nest in the Northern Hemisphere migrate northward in the spring to take advantage of burgeoning insect populations, budding plants and an abundance of nesting locations. When winter approaches, the availability of food drops and the birds head south. Many think cold weather is a big factor, but many species of bird can withstand cold temperatures if food is available (even hummingbirds!).
Types of Migration
Permanent residents do not migrate. They are able to find adequate supplies of food year-round.
Short-distance migrants move only a short distance, as from higher to lower elevations on a mountainside.
Medium-distance migrants cover distances that span from one to several states.
The pattern of migration can vary within each category, but is most variable in short and medium distance migrants.
The Ultimate Migrator | The Arctic Tern
Many bird species undergo incredible migrations each year, travelling thousands of kms. The absolute champion is the Arctic tern, covering 90,000kms going pole to pole each year. They can live up to 30 years, meaning there lifetime migration can be the equivalent of flying to the moon and back 3 times!
Zigzags and Migrant Traps?
The Physics of Bird Migration
There's a lot going on behind the amazing migrations of birds, from why some fly in a v-formation to how they know where they're going. Learn more with this great video from Untamed Science.
Physics of Bird Migration
Hazards of Bird Migration
Travelling several thousand miles is a dangerous and exhausting undertaking. The physical stress of the trip, lack of adequate food supplies along the way, bad weather, and increased exposure to predators all add to the hazards of the journey.
In recent years long-distant migrants have been facing a growing threat from communication towers and tall buildings. Many species are attracted to the lights of tall buildings and millions are killed each year in collisions with the structures. Birds also depend on certain stopover areas to rest and for food, but climate change and habitat loss are having an impact on these important stops.
Cool Ways to Track Bird Migrations
BirdCast
BirdCast develops and maintains tools that predict and monitor bird migration. These include forecast bird migration maps that predict where and when bird migration will occur, live bird migration maps that show where migration is occurring in real-time, and migration alerts to which one can subscribe to learn when bird migration will occur. Data from weather surveillance radar are essential for developing and maintaining these tools.
Animal Tracker App
With Animal Tracker, you can follow the movements of wild animals all over the world that are being tracked in near-real time! These movements are collected by tiny GPS tags carried by the animals and are stored at Movebank, a free online infrastructure used by hundreds of researchers to manage, share, analyze, and archive animal movement data.