Will Elise and Finn make it from coast to Brazil? Tiny birds’ tiny transmitters monitor their migration

By CHERYL ROMANO/Lincoln Chronicle

Elise and Finn are winging their way from the Oregon coast on a 7,000-mile trek to South America.

That’s remarkable, but not unusual. Birds like the two Purple Martins tackle daunting migrations each year, seeking food, breeding sites and sun.

But for the first time, as these two coastal songbirds head to southeastern Brazil, new tracking devices monitored in Yachats are detailing their progress.

“This project provides a remarkable opportunity to see where birds go after the nesting season ends and highlights how conserving migratory birds connects habitats thousands of miles apart,” according to the Seven Capes Bird Alliance, an Audubon group working in Lincoln and Tillamook counties to protect native birds and their habitats.

The Alliance was recently joined by SWIFTY — Swallows In Flight To Yachats — a community birding group that develops nesting boxes.

Key SWIFTY volunteers are tracking Elise and Finn’s journey and posting their progress on the group’s website.

“Birds are an indicator species,” says Alliance president Dawn Villaescusa. “If they’re healthy and their habitats have clean air and water, those areas are healthy for humans, too.

“For example, we have a lot of ospreys in Lincoln County,” she said. “Their numbers are increasing, and that’s a good sign — it tells us we have good water, and a good supply of fish. And that tells us a lot about the county being a healthy place to live. That’s why tracking and understanding bird populations is important.”

Purple Martins like Elise and Finn belong to North America’s largest swallow family. According to the Purple Martin Conservation Association, their average length is 7.5 inches. Adult males sport black/blue/purple plumage, and adult females are more subdued in color, with lighter undersides. They’re aerial insectivores, catching bugs in the air as they fly.

In conjunction with the Klamath Bird Observatory’s PUMA project, SWIFTY secured funding to “tag” Elise and Finn with tiny, solar-powered tracking devices that were developed just last year. About $1,800 from the Oregon Birding Association and Seven Capes Alliance paid for the tags and two years of data collection.

Each backpack-style device weighs one gram, contrasted with a PUMA’s typical weight of about 56 grams – or two ounces. The tags broadcast digital signals to the cell phones of Yachats residents Jim Welch and Wally Orchard, two of SWIFTY’s founders, along with members of Klamath Observatory.

Since 2020, the Klamath group has used GPS tags to study the migration of PUMAs and helped identify the 7,000-mile journey to Brazil. But under the older tags, the returning birds had to be captured to learn where they travelled. With the new BluBird tag developed by Cellular Tracking Technologies, no recapturing is needed.

Oregon coast to Mexico

Finn, a male tagged near Florence on July 22, began his migration Aug. 19. Elise, a female tagged near Waldport on July 21, took off Aug. 20. Despite leaving Oregon one day apart, they turned up within a few miles of each other in Mexico. Thanks to the BluBird tags, here’s how the bird groups recorded the birds’ progress after leaving the Oregon coast:

Aug. 21: Finn was recorded east of Reno;

Aug. 22: Elise was recorded in the Lake Tahoe area 60 miles away;

Aug. 23: Elise was recorded in Mexico; 11 hours later, Finn was detected a bit farther south;

Aug. 24: Both birds reached the Guaymas area along Mexico’s Sea of Cortez; and

Aug. 27: Both birds were recorded in Guasave, north of Culiacan, Mexico.

Since then, having travelled about 1,500 miles, the two birds have been taking a break, resting and feeding in an area north of Mazatlan. SWIFTY plans to post maps of their progress every two weeks on this website.

“This data helps us identify where bird populations are, where their migration sites are, and to figure out if their numbers are declining, stable or increasing,” said Villaescusa.

“This journey makes migration tangible,” said Welch. “If the birds aren’t doing well, neither are we.”

He notes that climate change “is affecting bird populations at a fast pace.” As planet warming and deforestation reduce supplies of water and habitat, Welch said “We’re going to lose a lot of birds in the next 20 years.”

Make it to Brazil?

Following the saga of Elise and Finn marks the first time that the tiny BluBird tracking tags have been used on PUMAs of the western subspecies. According to Welch, there are only some 3,500 nesting pairs of the western subspecies, compared to 500,000 pairs of the Eastern variety.

Clearly, the journey is remarkable, but there are no guarantees that either bird will make it to its destination or back to the Oregon coast in the spring.

“There are hazards along the way,” says Welch, citing storms, wildfires and smoke. “A young bird making its first migration has only about a 50 percent chance of migrating back.”

But since Elise and Finn are adult birds, it’s assumed they each made the Brazilian round-trip at least once before.

“If all goes well,” he says, “we expect Elise and Finn to reach their destination in Brazil sometime in December.”

Welch and Orchard began SWIFTY in 2021 to build, install and maintain nesting boxes for swallows. Helped by other volunteers, they expanded over the last few years to help PUMAs and other bird species to survive and thrive.

• SWIFTY and Seven Capes welcome volunteers to help with protecting and conserving birds and their habitats. People interested in SWIFTY can contact Welch (970-217-4424) or Orchard (541-606-0055); for Seven Capes, visit the volunteer page of the Alliance’s website.

• Cheryl Romano is a Yachats freelance writer who contributes regularly to Lincoln Chronicle. She can be reached at [email protected]