In 2014, Bird Studies Canada created the Motus Wildlife Tracking System (motus-wts.org) now an international collaborative research network of automated radio-telemetry receiving stations with more than 400 receiver stations from the Canadian Arctic to South America, operated by more than 100 collaborators. Despite significant gaps across the western portions of North and South America, it facilitates landscape-scale research and education on the ecology and conservation of migratory animals. Kristie will highlight major successes in movement ecology, present the current status and plans for Motus expansion in the West, and provide information on how you can get involved with this effort. Additionally, she will present her findings using Motus to determine the seasonal movement patterns and habitat associations of the Kern River Valley Tricolored Blackbird population.
Motus installation 
Kristie Stein 
Tagged Red-wing Blackbird
Kristie Stein is a Wildlife Biologist with the Southern Sierra Research Station (SSRS) in Weldon, California. Kristie earned a B.S. in Natural Resource Ecology and Management from Louisiana State University in 2013 and a M.S. in Environment and Natural Resources from Ohio State University in 2018. She became enamored with birds at a young age from following her father around the swamps of Louisiana, but it wasn’t until she took an Ornithology course at LSU that she realized her real passion was avian research.
If you want to join the Zoom meeting and see/hear about Kristie’s experiences with this new and important migratory tracking effort — which incidentally has been supported by a grant from SFVAS — sign up by entering your information below and you will receive a link prior to the event. (If you’ve signed up for a previous Zoom event, no need — you’re already on our list!)