Settling into an Austral Summer

Yesterday’s tracking data shows that almost all nine satellite-tagged Swallow-tailed Kites are settled into their South American summer ranges.

Locations of nine satellite-tagged Swallow-tailed Kites.

All but one bird is in southwestern Brazil; Gulf Hammock has returned to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, for the 4th year in a row.

Three kites, Day, Strong River, and Bullfrog, are in the State of Mato Grosso, Brazil, within 100 miles of the Bolivian border.

The four kites in Mato Grosso do Sul, include three return visitors: Palmetto (4th year), Pace and MIA (3rd year), plus newly-tagged, Lacombe. Lacombe is the southernmost kite, nearing the Parana border.

Sadly, we report that PearlMS has not made it to his wintering grounds this year. His signal was lost on 13 October while passing through the state of Rondonia. There are several reasons why we might stop receiving transmissions from a bird we are tracking: a dead storage battery, premature transmitter failure, harness failure, a broken antenna, or mortality. The batteries in these solar-powered transmitters last over five years, and we have never recovered a Swallow-tailed Kite’s transmitter with evidence of harness failure or a damaged antenna. Complete transmitter failure has been extremely rare for these sophisticated devices and we have not confirmed one such case in the last 15 years.

With the guidance of Dr. Jennifer Coulson, a small group of local scientists has tried to reach the last known location of PearlMS, but they have not had luck accessing this remote area of mixed forest and pasture within a large farm near a hydroelectric dam. PearlMS has transmitted since 2011 and in that time has sent us well over 50,000 miles of tracking data. We will share more of the story of PearlMS in our next blog so please stay tuned.

Every marked bird of every species we have tracked has provided remarkable insights vital to conservation. We remember this each time we accept the privilege of attaching a transmitter to a bird. Sharing their stories with you is one way we can thank them for their contributions. We thank you for following, and for caring about these incredible birds.

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