1. Flyways and Banding Audrey DeRose-Wilson
Hi, I’m Audrey, and I’m a shorebird biologist. Today I’m going to talk about Flyways and Banding
Audrey DeRose-Wilson
Shorebird and Marsh bird biologist
January
Delaware Division of Fish & Wildlife, DNREC

2. A Flyway is…
First some definitions… A flyway is

3. A Flyway is…
The entire range of a migratory species or population, including, breeding areas, wintering areas, and the pathway between.
It’s the entire range of a species or population, including breeding areas, wintering areas, and the pathway between. Lots of species migrate, but a flyway refers to those that use flight to migrate. Which means that we are talking birds, and insects.

4. A Flyway is…
The entire range of migratory species or population, including, breeding areas, wintering areas, and the pathway between.
Just read

5. Many species migrate to take advantage of seasonal resources, but since we’re talking about flyways, we’ll exclude species the migrate in the ocean and on land

6. Many species migrate to take advantage of seasonal resources, but since we’re talking about flyways, we’ll exclude species the migrate in the ocean and on land

7. Many species migrate to take advantage of seasonal resources, but since we’re talking about flyways, we’ll exclude species the migrate in the ocean and on land

8. What is a shorebird? Birds that find food along the shoreline
Gulls and terns are often seen on the shore, but are not true shorebirds since the forage at sea, or inland
Long bill
Shorebirds refers to a group of birds that typically find their food along the shoreline. Shorebirds have adaptations that help them find food in shallow water environments: Long legs, long bills, and long narrow wings for their long migratory flights. People often see birds like gulls and terns roosting along the shore and think that they are shorebirds as well, but these species usually forage at sea, or sometimes at inland sites, rather than finding food along the shore, so we call them seabirds.
Long narrow wings
Long legs

9. Nine major shorebird flyways
Shorebird flyways can span nearly from pole to pole, and tend to follow continental coastlines or major river systems. There are 9 major shorebird flyways

10. Atlantic Americas Flyway
Today we’ll Atlantic Americas Flyway, which the Delaware Bay is an important part of.

11. Pacfic Americas Flyway
And at the end of the talk if I have time, I’ll show a migration route taken by a bird in the Pacific Flyway

12. Shorebirds are the ultimate migrants
Many migrate from the southern tip of South America to the Arctic to breed.
They migrate to take advantage of seasonally abundant resources, particularly abundant insects during the short Arctic summer. Migration is very time sensitive since they depend on seasonal resources during their long journey

13. Shorebirds are the ultimate migrants
Many migrate from the southern tip of South America to the Arctic to breed.
They make just a few stops during this long trip!
They stop in the same locations year after year

14. Shorebirds are the ultimate migrants
Many migrate from the southern tip of South America to the Arctic to breed.
They make just a few stops during this long trip!
To make the journey they must have access to rich source of food to build up fat reserves
Food resources at stopover locations are critical because birds arrived starved and depend on abundant food resources to build up fat reserves for the next leg of their journey

15. Rufa Red Knot migration route
The red knot is colorful shorebird with an especially efficient and time sensitive migration. The majority of the red knot subspecies called Rufa, passes through the Delaware Bay on their way north each May.

16. These red knots spend most of their time in south America, many of them as far south as the southern tip of the continent. In April or May of each year, they set forth on a long journey to the opposite end of the earth where, if they are lucky, they will breed and raise chicks.

17. This northward migration is a race to the breeding grounds because the short Arctic summer give the birds just short time to find a mate, and raise chicks.

18. Along the way, birds stop at just a few specific sites, at a designated time to where they know they can find abundant food to quickly refuel for the next leg of their journey. Delaware Bay is one of the most important sites on the Atlantic Flyway because shorebirds have timed their arrival to coincide with the beginning of horseshoe crab spawning and eat their fill of millions of horseshoe crab eggs that are available on the surface of the sand on beaches.

19. Credit: NJ Audubon
Credit: NJ Audubon
Birds that gain a more weight in the Delaware Bay have a better shot at completing their journey to Arctic breeding grounds where they may need to find a mate, lay eggs, and incubate them, all before their breeding season food, insects, become abundant.

20. How do birds navigate?
We don’t fully understand how birds navigate, but they probably use geographic features that are easy to see from the air. They may also be able to detect and use the north and south magnetic poles to orient generally in the right directions. Birds may use the sun as compass, or the stars, if they migrate at night.

21. How do birds navigate?
Geographic features such as a coastline, or mountain range
but they probably use geographic features that are easy to see from the air. Birds may use the sun as compass, or the stars, if they migrate at night.

22. How do birds navigate?
Geographic features such as a coastline, or mountain range
The Sun and stars
We don’t fully understand how birds navigate, but they probably use geographic features that are easy to see from the air. Birds may use the sun as compass, or the stars, if they migrate at night.

23. How do birds navigate? Magnetic fields
Geographic features such as a coastline, or mountain range
The Sun and stars
Magnetic fields
Or they may be able to detect and use magnetic fields

24. How do birds navigate? Magnetic fields
Geographic features such as a coastline, or mountain range
The Sun and stars
Magnetic fields
They may also be able to detect and use the north and south magnetic poles to orient generally in the right directions.
How do we learn where birds go?

25. Marking birds today
We identify and track individual birds on their journey. Here in the Delaware Bay, we capture birds in large nets, mark them by putting a small plastic flag with an engraved alpha-numeric code on one of their legs and an engraved metal band on the other leg. The codes on the band and flag are unique and will stay on for the rest of the bird’s life, so that we will always be able to identify that individual.

26. History of marking birds
~200 BC: Romans used thread tied on birds legs to deliver messages in war
We identify and track individual birds on their journey. Here in the Delaware Bay, we capture birds in large nets, mark them by putting a small plastic flag with an engraved alpha-numeric code on one of their legs and an engraved metal band on the other leg. The codes on the band and flag are unique and will stay on for the rest of the bird’s life, so that we will always be able to identify that individual.

27. History of marking birds
~200 BC: Romans used thread tied on birds legs to deliver messages in war
1595: Henry IV placed first metal band on peregrine falcons
We identify and track individual birds on their journey. Here in the Delaware Bay, we capture birds in large nets, mark them by putting a small plastic flag with an engraved alpha-numeric code on one of their legs and an engraved metal band on the other leg. The codes on the band and flag are unique and will stay on for the rest of the bird’s life, so that we will always be able to identify that individual.

28. History of marking birds
~200 BC: Romans used thread tied on birds legs to deliver messages in war
1595: Henry IV placed first metal band on peregrine falcons
1899: System of inscribed bands developed in Denmark
We identify and track individual birds on their journey. Here in the Delaware Bay, we capture birds in large nets, mark them by putting a small plastic flag with an engraved alpha-numeric code on one of their legs and an engraved metal band on the other leg. The codes on the band and flag are unique and will stay on for the rest of the bird’s life, so that we will always be able to identify that individual.

29. History of marking birds
~200 BC: Romans used thread tied on birds legs to deliver messages in war
1595: Henry IV placed first metal band on peregrine falcons
1899: System of inscribed bands developed in Denmark
Early 1900s: Waterfowl banding in North America
We identify and track individual birds on their journey. Here in the Delaware Bay, we capture birds in large nets, mark them by putting a small plastic flag with an engraved alpha-numeric code on one of their legs and an engraved metal band on the other leg. The codes on the band and flag are unique and will stay on for the rest of the bird’s life, so that we will always be able to identify that individual.

30. Delaware Shorebird Project
We identify and track individual birds on their journey. Here in the Delaware Bay, we capture birds in large nets, mark them by putting a small plastic flag with an engraved alpha-numeric code on one of their legs and an engraved metal band on the other leg. The codes on the band and flag are unique and will stay on for the rest of the bird’s life, so that we will always be able to identify that individual.

31. Resighting observations
N=MC/R
The code on the metal band cannot be read unless the bird is recaptures, but the colored flags can read using a spotting scope, camera with a good zoom, or if you get lucky, even binoculars. Researchers work to identify as many flagged birds as possible

32. Birders and anyone with the right equipment to read a flag can help out and provide valuable reports of birds when they are outside of the area where they were marked. You can find out how to report marked birds at this website.

33. Countries are assigned colors
If you see a flagged bird you can tell immediately what country or region it came from by the color of its flag. Shorebirds banded in the USA have either light or dark green flags. Birds banded in Brazil sport blue flags, Chile red flags, and Argentina orange flags.
Source: Pan-American Shorebird Protocol

34. Moonbird: B95
Moonbird is one of the most famous shorebirds. This red knot was at least two years old when he was flagged in Argentina with an orange flag in 1995.

35. Moonbird: B95 ?
400,000 miles
Equivalent to flying to the Moon and almost all the way back!
B95 was at
least 21 years
old in 2014!
That was 21 years ago. Moonbird has made the journey between Argentina and Canada many times, traveling over 400,000 miles, the distance to the moon and almost all the way back to earth when he was last seen in Moonbird has been seen many times and in many locations since he was first flagged, occasionally disappearing for long stretches of time. If still alive today, Moonbird is at least 23 years old and is on his second trip the moon!
Bands allow us to understand where birds stop on their long migration routes, and where they winter and breed. They also allow us to estimate the survival rate, and learn how long birds can live, but they are limited by fact that someone has to observe the bird and read the flag to get that information
He was at least 2 years old when he was flagged in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina with an orange flag reading B95. That was 21 years ago in If alive today, Moonbird is at least 23 years old and still making his long 18,000 mile yearly journey between Argentina and Canada. He has made this trip so often that he has flown over 400,000 miles –the equivalent of flying to the moon and almost all the way back!

36. Remote tracking devices
Geotags measure and store data on light and dark periods
Satellite tags transmit location data using GPS
Besides bands, there are other ways to track birds. Small light sensors called geotrackers can be attached to birds’s legs. These sensors keep track of time and collect information on light and dark periods, which allow us to estimate rough locations based on sunrise and sunset times and daylight period.
Satellite tags use GPS, the same location technology as you have in your phone to collect and transmit locations. Unlike geotags, that have to physically collected when a bird is captured, satellite tags can transmit data remotely, so you can get real-time data

37. Satellite trackers can provide incredibly detailed real time data which can yield a wealth of new information. When researchers put transmitters on several whimbrel, they learned of a previously unknown migration route. Scientists did not know if these birds could survive if they encountered a hurricane, but the transmitters revealed that they could fly through a hurricane.
Many people were tracking the progress of two whimbrel as they moved south and flew through a hurricane in 2011, and so when they were shot by hunters in Caribbean it made a lot of news, and ultimately led to increased hunting regulations in the Caribbean.

38. The Odyssey of Red Knot 6J3 Captured 21 April 2012
6J3 is red knot that received a transmitter in Texas
Captured 21 April 2012

39. The Odyssey of Red Knot 6J3 Left Texas 12 May Left Saskatchewan 24 May
4000 km
The Odyssey of
Red Knot 6J3
2300 km
Left Texas 12 May
Left Saskatchewan 24 May

40. The Odyssey of Red Knot 6J3 Breeding grounds Left Alaska 01 July
4750 km
Breeding grounds
Left Alaska 01 July

41. The Odyssey of Red Knot 6J3 Left San Diego area 27 July
5650 km
Left San Diego area 27 July
Short stop in Lagunas del Istmo
Left Peru 6 September

42. 4250 km
The Odyssey of
Red Knot 6J3

43. The Odyssey of Red Knot 6J3 “Wintering” around Chiloe Island, Chile
9 September 2012 – 7 April 2013 (209 days)

44. The Odyssey of Red Knot 6J3 8100 km Left S. Chile 7 April
6+ days nonstop flight
average ~55 kph

45. We can learn from marked birds:
Population size
Survival rate
Where they go
How fast they travel
Threats they encounter along the way
We identify and track individuals

46. Conservation
Understanding movements throughout the annual cycle helps us learn where birds need protection
Story of an individual bird appeals to people more than numbers
Understanding where birds go throughout their life cycle, and where they die can highlight areas where we need to increase protection or improve habitat.
If you can tell a story about a specific bird on a perilous journey, people will often pay more attention than if you give survival statistics. These birds can be ambassadors for conservation like B95, and the Whimbrels whose death changed hunting laws.

47. Thank you!
Thank you to all of our partners and collaborators

48. The Odyssey of Red Knot 6J3 Red knot breeding range Spring 2012
Fall 2012
Spring 2012
2300 (TX to Sask)
4000 (Sask to AK)
4750 (AK to San Diego)
5650 (SD to Peru)
4250 (Peru to S. Chile)
8100 (Chile to TX)
29,050 km in one year
> 3 weeks in migratory flight
Spring 2013*
* Nonstop flight –
Chiloe to Texas
8100 km
6+ days
avg 55kph
Winter 2012/13