THE FIRST MOTUS BIRD MONITORING NETWORK

More than one million Nearctic coastal and marine birds use the islands, beaches and wetlands of Northwest Mexico during their annual migratory cycle.

Despite this region's importance to these species, many lack robust information about their connectivity and migratory patterns, arrival and departure dates, survival, and habitat use.

The limitations imposed on conservation efforts by these knowledge gaps are exacerbated by changing environmental conditions and the accelerated expansion of aquaculture, coastal development, and anthropogenic disturbance.

Effective conservation strategies aimed at improving the status of the region's declining species of conservation concern require a cost-effective method to monitor birds and obtain robust data to support conservation decisions.

Partners will create the first collaborative network of Motus stations- a coordinated automated radio telemetry system for detecting birds carrying miniature transmitters- to permanently monitor the movements of migratory birds in Northwest Mexico.

This infrastructure will allow the project's seven partner organizations to implement a regional research agenda to monitor focal species of conservation concern.

This project will thus kick start the expansion of the Motus network in Mexico and immediately begin providing much of the information required to determine the migratory movements of a suite of threatened birds.