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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