News and Articles

Tracking Cuckoos using cell phones

Figure shows detection locations as one tagged cuckoo travels south for the winter. The colors indicate the time of day of the detection. Two of the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoos we tagged with Blu+ tags, the kind that are detected by cell phones (like Apple AirTags), have flown south for the winter. It has been interesting to see where they show up along the way as well as what time of day. If you would like to follow one of our Cuckoos as it travels down the coastline of North America, you can click the following link. BluPlusTags_confidence_residence_63CF8F90_2026-10-20Download If you would...

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Vulture count 2026 a big success!

We counted an amazing 17,294 Turkey Vultures! Our highest day was 2,343 birds on Sep. 30th, while our lowest day was a sad 6 birds on Oct. 6th. Seven daily totals were above the historical daily average, while 14 days were below average (Figure 1). The hot temperatures caused by the high pressure system that settled in on Oct. 1st really slowed down migration and probably contributed to our below average total count.  Figure 1. Daily counts of Turkey Vultures migrating through the Kern River Valley, Sep. 19th – Oct. 10th, 2026. The yellow line represents the historical daily average...

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Interactive Map for understanding daily changes

Map shows detections for one tag by hour of the day.  Colors represent different periods (4 hours) including night, dawn, morning, afternoon, and evening.  You can move the time slider in the upper right corner of the map to see narrower time windows and look at habitat use at that time of year.  This will allow you to look at daily habitat use patterns in different parts of the season. You can click on the link below or download the .html file to explore this map and manipulate the time slider date ranges. You will need to turn off the...

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Interactive map for understanding seasonal changes

Map shows detection points for one tag across the season with color representing month.  You can move the time slider in the upper right corner of the map to see narrower time windows and look at habitat use at that time of year. You can click on the link below or download the .html file to explore this map and manipulate the time slider date ranges. You will need to turn off the crowd sourced points layer to have control via the time slider. BluPlusTags_detection_month_FE7C638C_2026-09-04Download

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Interactive map for scoring habitat features

Interactive map with detection points showing zoomed out version with the number indicating the number of hidden detection points.  There are also a few individual points visible.  One has been clicked on to display its confidence score (the basis of the circle marker diameter) and the time interval until the next detection (to give an indication of whether it is a fly-by or a stop-over/foraging bout. Blu+ tag detection for habitat scoringDownload bp_crowd_focal_habitat_2C77BBA6_2026-09-02Download

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Support the Return of the Turkey Vulture Count

After 21 years, SSRS is bringing back this long-term monitoring project, and YOU CAN HELP! From 1994-2005, SSRS's predecessor, The Kern River Research Center, conducted annual Turkey Vulture counts in the Kern River Valley (KRV). This effort documented the fall migration of Turkey Vultures along one of the most important migration routes in the country. Now SSRS is working to bring the project back. Why the KRV? The Kern River provides important roosting habitat, while the surrounding landscape funnels migrating vultures toward the Mojave Desert as they fly south. Help SSRS find out what has changed in 21 years. The...

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Tracking of Tricolored Blackbirds with Blu+ tags

We have been able to tag and successfully track six Tricolored Blackbirds (TRBL, Agelaius tricolor) with surprising results! These tags can be detected by Motus.org stations that have the right antennas (e.g., Panorama Vista Preserve in Bakersfield), by Terra Listens home detectors, and by cell phones and Bluetooth devices (think Apple Airtags). Four of the tagged birds have left the Kern River Valley and moved to the Central Valley. Three of these birds have been moving around west of Bakersfield. See our recent post for details of one that traveled down the Kern River Canyon along Highway 178. The fourth...

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Testing new Blu+ tags: Movement from KRV to SJV

Back May 19, 2026 and on August 4, 2025 we posted about purchasing a new type of wildlife tag that can be detected by cell phones and other IoT devices (think AirTags) as they travel. In addition, they are detectable by both the increasing numbers of Motus stations equipped to detect relatively new 2.4 GHz tags as well as home-based stations on the Terralistens network. With the help of grants from NRCS and other sources to the Kern River Audubon Preserve, including funds raised during our recent donation drive (Give Big Kern 2026), we were able to purchase 10 of these new tags. We have deployed...

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Testing new Blu+ tags: Results

BluBird+ tag detections by cell phones in the Kern River Valley from 4/8/2026-5/18/2026 Back on August 4, 2025 we posted about purchasing a new type of wildlife tag that can be detected by cell phones and other IoT devices (think AirTags) as they travel. In addition, they are detectable by both the increasing numbers of Motus stations equipped to detect relatively new 2.4 GHz tags as well as home-based stations on the Terralistens network. With the help of grants from NRCS and other sources to the Kern River Audubon Preserve, including funds raised during our recent donation drive (Give Big Kern 2026),...

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Motus node workshop at TWS WS

We are co-hosting a workshop about using "nodes", essentially mini Motus stations, to detect tagged animals, register their activities, and triangulate their movements. These devices can detect radio tags near them and send the data to Motus.org via a nearby Motus station (see this page for more information on Motus). This workshop is the day before the main meeting of The Wildlife Society, Western Section in Monterey, CA, USA. There may be spots left if you want to register. https://monterey2026.tws-west.org/prepost-meeting-workshops/

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SSRS merch for the holidays!

In celebration of all of our recent work tracking Western Yellow-billed Cuckoos in the Kern River Valley, we are releasing new merchandise (t-shirts and a bandana, for now) on Bonfire. Check them out at our Bonfire store If you would just like to donate to support out work, look for the donate button on our web page.

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Movement and home range estimation of Yellow-billed cuckoos

It is important that people do not try to find these birds this season as it might cause them to abandon the nest. If you are interested in trying to see cuckoos here, contact us through our contact form. In 2025, we have 4 tagged cuckoos. These birds were captured early in the season in giant mist nets as they flew through the tall cottonwoods and willows. Then they were tagged with a radio tag and given colored leg bands to be able to identify them through binoculars. The tag allows us to estimate the location of the birds in...

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Two Yellow-billed Cuckoos are back on the breeding grounds!

We are thrilled to announce that at least two of the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoos that we tagged over the past three summers in the Kern River Valley (KRV) have returned. One of these birds, affectionately nicknamed Stroopwafle, was tagged in summer 2022. In 2023, it was detected by a Motus station at Mad Island Marsh, north of Corpus Christi, Texas on its northbound migration on June 15, 2023. It seemed to stay in the KRV for the summer during 2023, with the last tag detection being in August 2023. During this time we were able to track the bird's movements...

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Testing new Blu+ tags

We have been invited to purchase some of the first of a new type of tag. The exciting thing about these new tags is that they can be detected by cell phones and other IoT devices (think AirTags) as they travel. In addition, they are detectable by both the increasing numbers of Motus stations equipped to detect relatively new 2.4 GHz tags as well as home-based stations on the Terralistens network. These tags have been successfully used to track Monarch Butterflies as they travel down the East Coast of the US. Our hope is that these tags will allow tracking...

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Our Yellow-billed Cuckoos are on their way back to the breeding grounds!

We are thrilled to announce that one of the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoos that we tagged last summer in the Kern River Valley, affectionately nicknamed Baba Ganoush, was detected by a Motus station near Corpus Christi, Texas on its northbound migration on June 16th, 2024. This is particularly exciting because last year another of our tagged cuckoos (this one nicknamed Stroopwafel, tagged in 2022 along the South Fork Kern River) was detected by the very same Motus station on the Texas coast-- the two detections were just one day and a year apart. The Mad Island Marsh Preserve, where both cuckoos...

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Preventing wildlife deaths in vertical pipes

Death Pipes are everywhere and are responsible for a hidden, avian mortality epidemic. Please get involved and pass this information on to others and help raise awareness of this preventable killing of wildlife. Any open top vertical pipe can be a death trap to birds and other wildlife. This problem is a nearly invisible. Unlike birds colliding with buildings, windows or other structures where they remain visible and obvious to people, birds trapped in pipes end up dying a slow death, completely unnoticed in open posts, sewer systems, septic tanks, or other hidden locations. Hollow metal and plastic (PVC) pipes and posts are...

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Article on our Cuckoo “Hummus”

Check out this great new Audubon Magazine article featuring Hummus the cuckoo and findings from our research using the Motus Wildlife Tracking Network! This work was done on and around the Audubon Kern River Preserve(run by Audubon California). https://www.audubon.org/news/migrating-cuckoo-named-hummus-makes-tasty-case-land-conservation?fbclid=IwAR0iRTaUdIch5wetDwFfL4UMZD3tid0B_zHxV77GWFxNEcI7IbY-y3tKSLQ

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Tricolored Blackbird detected at our Motus Station!

The data is in... and our Motus tower at Canebrake Ecological Reserve detected one of the Tricolored Blackbirds we tagged at a breeding colony April 2022! (The bird in this photo to be exact!) Spring 2022 tagging of tricolored blackbirds. While the 10 mile movement from its original tagging location to Canebrake may not seem like a big deal, it's actually the timing of the detection that we're all excited about. Tricolored Blackbirds are highly nomadic, moving almost year around to follow abundant food resources, and their post-breeding movements (especially in foothill populations like ours) are still poorly understood. There...

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Motus Detects Shorebirds!

Check out these shorebird movements along the Pacific Flyway this year! This study is part of a research collaboration led by The Nature Conservancy to examine shorebird use of overwintering and migratory stopover habitats in California's Central Valley and beyond. Each bird was tagged with a small radio transmitter called a "Motus tag," which is designed to be picked up by Motus stations (strategically placed, automated receivers with elevated antennas) as the bird moves across the landscape. SSRS Senior Research Biologist Pat Lorch installed a whopping 12 Motus stations across central California for this project, many of which picked up the...

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MAPS banding highlights!

We had a special visitor to our MAPS bird banding station this June! This is a male Summer Tanager in its first alternate plumage (FCA). This first photo shows a nice example of juvenal1 (yellow) vs non-juvenal (red, alternate plumage in this case) tail feather shape. The next photo shows the typical mottled red and yellow plumage of a male in the summer following the year it hatched. To nerd out on molt even further... this bird left its nest last year in yellowish juvenal plumage, and did a partial "pre-formative" molt of body feathers at the end of the...

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