By: Jay Wright

As temperatures drop and winter approaches Ohio, the annual fall bird migration winds down and migrant songbirds finish their trek to their tropical homes where they will spend most of the year. For most of these birds, we can only guess where they are spending their winter and what route they took to get there, but modern tracking technology can allow us to follow some of these individuals more closely. Back in June, Metroparks conservation science staff deployed 5 radio transmitters on Wood Thrush at Pearson Metropark, as part of a range-wide study of the migration behavior of this species. Pearson Metropark is home to a Motus wildlife tracking tower on the Homestead Shelter, which can detect any tagged birds within a 5-10 mile radius. This tower is part of a network of hundreds across the western hemisphere, so when our tagged birds leave Pearson and migrate past other towers, that lets us see where and when they are traveling.

Of the 5 birds tagged at Pearson, one in particular has traveled past enough towers to get a clear view of its migration to Central America. Bird 671, an adult male Wood Thrush, left Pearson on the evening of September 16 and within a few hours had passed the Delaware dam and the Columbus Zoo. By the following evening it was leaving Ohio, taking a route that follows the Appalachian mountain range. The bird likely stopped to refuel for several days in the Appalachians, and by October 7 it was passing over northern Georgia. Over the course of the next 8 days this bird made its way to the Gulf Coast, successfully completed the perilous crossing of the Gulf of Mexico – at minimum a >600-mile nonstop flight – and arrived in Belize. Since the detection on the Motus tower in Belize occurred for only a few minutes around midnight, it’s likely that Bird 671 was still migrating and we still don’t know its final destination on the wintering grounds. However, migration tracks like this one, when taken together with hundreds of others like it across the range of Wood Thrush, can tell scientists a lot about preferred migratory corridors, differences between regional populations, and threats that these birds can face during migration.

Bird 671, and the 4 other Wood Thrush tagged at Pearson, were part of 25 birds tagged in Ohio, and over 560 across eastern North America, that received Motus radio transmitters this summer. Metroparks Toledo is one of the many collaborative partners making this research possible, working closely with the Ohio Division of Wildlife, Ohio State University, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Migratory track of Wood Thrush 671 as it left Pearson Metropark and headed south to Belize.

Metroparks staff and skilled volunteers captured and tagged 5 Wood Thrush at Pearson Metropark in June.