Scientists in Land Between the Lakes testing use of tiny tags to track migrating hummingbirds

There’s a special buzz around the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area every August, as hundreds of hummingbirds stop to fuel up on their way south for the winter. Scientists are using tiny fluttering birds’ annual migratory pit stop this summer as a chance to test an experimental tracking technology.

Researchers with the nonprofit Southeastern Avian Research set up shop at the Woodlands Nature Station and two other LBL sites to catch and tag hummingbirds with remarkably small, solar-powered tags that are capable of tracking their movements and wirelessly transmitting the data back to the scientists. These tags, which were previously used to track the movements of monarch butterflies, weigh less than 0.06 grams – or about as much as a pinch of salt.

Cyndi Routledge, SEAR’s founder and the project’s lead researcher, said that the recent testing has shown that the tags have the potential to significantly contribute to the understanding of the species.

“We already know that it’s going to lead to a greater understanding of these birds, of their movement, whether it’s short term movement around their breeding territory,” Routledge said. “In [the] long term, it has to do with the migratory routes. How far are they flying in a day? What routes are they taking?”

John Pollpeter, the lead naturalist for Woodlands Nature Station, believes this deeper understanding of the birds and their movements could help people learn to take better care of the species.

“By having that kind of information, we’re better able to meet the conservation needs of this particular species,” Pollpeter said.

The current method for tracking hummingbird movements is called “banding.” This process entails carefully attaching a band around the leg of a bird, allowing for it to be identified as it visits various migratory and feeding stops.

Routledge said that, although banding has provided researchers with useful information about the animals’ migratory movements, it forces them to also “make educated guesses” about the birds’ movements “when they get out of our sight.”

Although the use of solar tag technology on hummingbirds is still considered experimental, Routledge said that this summer’s tests have shown promising results that could eliminate the need for those “educated guesses” in favor of information that gives the researchers “a glimpse into their life that we’ve never had before.”

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