Conservation of population of migratory birds requires knowledge of their annual routines. To study bird migration I develop and apply a range of animal tracking techniques from stable isotopes and solar geolocation, to Argos Doppler and recently GPS tracking with ICARUS tags.
Every year migratory birds travel Earth ecosystems in a pursuit of seasonal peaks of resources. Separated by thousands of kilometres and exposed to various climatic and anthropogenic disturbances, these ecosystems change in different ways and at diverse rates. It is most intriguing to me how the long-distance migrants fit their annual routines to these nonaligned trends they encounter running through their annual routine.
Current technology enables instant remote surveillance of environmental and wildlife welfare through observations of animals, who are the top environmental experts. When animals face environmental disasters, disturbance, or scarcity of resources, they change their behaviour. These stress-induced changes can be traced in movement time-series and used to pinpoint even latent environmental pressures experienced by individuals.