Offshore Strategic Wildlife Initiative for Flight Tracking (O-SWIFT)
As offshore wind energy development expands along the U.S. Atlantic Coast, understanding offshore migratory movement patterns of birds is critical for conservation efforts.
While larger birds can easily carry GPS transmitters, smaller shorebirds and songbirds are limited by their size, requiring the use of other technologies such as automated radio telemetry tags (e.g., Motus tags) that leverage a network of receiving stations on land and across offshore infrastructure.
BRI scientists are leading the Offshore Strategic Wildlife Initiative for Flight Tracking (O-SWIFT) to improve our understanding of regional shorebird and songbird movements in the New York/New Jersey Bight.
- Evan Adams, Kate Williams, Julia Gulka, and Zoe Korpi (Biodiversity Research Institute)
- Adam Smith and Todd Alleger (American Bird Conservancy)
- Stuart Mackenzie (Birds Canada – Motus Central)
- Patrick Roberts (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
- Lisa Kiziuk (Willistown Conservation Trust)
- Ben Riker (Ocean Tech Services)
BRI staff contributors: Evan Adams, Kate Williams, Julia Gulka, Zoe Korpi, Kevin Regan, and Lauren diBiccari
Project Goals
- 1
Understand migrant songbird and shorebird offshore activity and migration patterns, and assess the taxonomic scale of offshore habitat use
- 2
Coordinate research activities through the Bird & Bat Tracking Working Group and the Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative
- 3
Inform offshore wind planning and risk assessments
Methodology
The two focus areas for this three-year project (2026-2029) are:
- 1
Distributing and deploying more than 500 lightweight tags in the northeastern U.S. in partnership with collaborators from the American Bird Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Manomet Bird Observatory, Monomoy Bird Observatory, the University of New England, and others.
- 2
Supporting the expansion of the Motus Wildlife Tracking System via maintenance of 18 Motus stations in New Jersey and offshore waters
Motus towers in New Jersey.
Recent efforts across Atlantic states and offshore wind developers have expanded coastal and offshore coverage of Motus stations, providing an opportunity for researchers to track smaller species across greater geographic ranges.
Additionally, new technologies are becoming available to track small-bodied birds via other mechanisms.
We will use the following tracking technologies during this project:
- The Motus Wildlife Tracking System, an international automated radio telemetry network of stations that detect movements of radio-tagged animals.
- Motus transmitters, which will be deployed on eleven species of passerines during fall migration (Black-and-white Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Cape May Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Connecticut Warbler, Ovenbird, Savannah Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Swainson’s Thrush, Veery, and Gray Catbird) and on federally threatened Piping Plovers during the breeding season.
- Barometric pressure geolocators that weigh less than a gram and allow scientists to reconstruct 3D flight paths and estimate flight altitude upon retrieval will be deployed on breeding Bobolinks and Saltmarsh Sparrows.
- Blū tags are smaller than Motus tags and transmit Bluetooth signals to a wide range of receiving devices. O-SWIFT is piloting the use of this new technology by double tagging a subset of Bobolinks and Saltmarsh Sparrows with both Blu tags and pressure geolocator tags. Double tagging allows researchers to compare tag detection and location estimates to inform the future use of these devices.
Barometric pressure geolocator on a Saltmarsh Sparrow.
Blu tag on a Saltmarsh Sparrow.
Motus tag on a Northern Waterthrush.
Project Data
All data from this project will be made publicly available via Motus and Movebank.
- Motus detection data will become available as soon as it is uploaded from stations within the network.
- Geolocator data will be shared via Movebank at the end of the project (early 2029).
Partners and Funding
This project is funded by the New Jersey Offshore Wind Research & Monitoring Initiative and brings together a strong coalition of regional scientific partners to share knowledge. We thank our project managers with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, as well as our field research partners at migration monitoring stations and banding stations across the Northeastern U.S.
Piping Plover with Motus tag © Peter Paton; Migrating Bobolinks © Mark Johnson; Motus station © BRI-Zoe Korpi; Saltmarsh Sparrow with barometric pressure geolocator © BRI-Zoe Korpi; Saltmarsh Sparrow with Blu tag © BRI-Zoe Korpi; Motus tag © BRI-Kate Williams.
