Bird migration connects continents, yet many species’ journeys remain a mystery. We work with international field partners to uncover birds’ migration routes using lightweight multi-sensor geolocators that record light, pressure, acceleration, and magnetic field. These devices make it possible to track species that were previously beyond reach, including small, nocturnal, and short-distance migrants. Our aim is to fill major gaps in global migration maps by studying birds from under-represented regions such as Eastern Europe, Central Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and South America.
©
© Bernd Skerra
European bee-eaters, right bird with geolocator
Geolocator Collaborations
Uncovering Migration Patterns in Data-Poor Regions through Geolocator Collaborations
Domain
Research
Unit
Bird Migration
Topics
Distribution Ecology, Ecology, Evolution, Migratory Birds, Population Development, Species Recovery
Habitat
alpine habitats, farmland, forest, meadows and pastures, rocky terrain, semi-open farmland, settlements, wasteland, wetlands
Project start
2018
Project status
ongoing
Project management
Raphaël Nussbaumer
Project region
Africa, Europe, America, Asia, Australia
Details
Project objectives
Methodology
Our collaborative model provides geolocator devices and technical support to enable external partners to study specific migratory species. Partners manage the fieldwork and data collection, while our team processes and analyses the data using standardised open-source workflows developed within this project. The resulting datasets, including raw sensor data, metadata, and analysed migration tracks, are curated and published in open access. This approach achieves the dual objective of describing previously unknown migration routes at the species level and building a publicly available global dataset.
Results
Each collaboration produces an open-access dataset and migration maps that reveal previously unknown routes and wintering areas of migratory birds. We also develop and maintain open-source analytical tools and workflows, ensuring that data is standardised, reproducible, and accessible for future studies.
Project partner(s)
Employees
Unit
Bird Migration
We research migratory birds from their breeding grounds to Africa and lay the foundations for their protection beyond national borders.
