Vermont Projects

Tracking Migratory Birds in Vermont

Our Goals
Understand the migratory routes and habitat needs of Vermont’s migratory birds so that we can protect them across their hemispheric range.
What We’re Doing
Utilizing banding and telemetry technology to track birds as they migrate between their breeding grounds in Vermont and their wintering grounds in Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, or South America.
Scandia Cruz and Pete Patrick_Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

For many Vermonters, the return of sweet bird song is a welcome sign of spring. Forests, fields, and wetlands come alive as hundreds of bird species return to Vermont to raise their young. Many travel thousands of miles from their wintering habitats in Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, or South America. To ensure that these species thrive across their range, we need to understand their population health, migratory routes, and habitat requirements. Audubon Vermont utilizes bird banding and innovative tracking technology to gather integral data on bird migration.  

Bird Banding at Green Mountain Audubon Center
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Bird banding—the act of safely catching, measuring, and marking birds with a light leg band—provides crucial information on productivity, survival, and population sizes. Since 1997, Audubon Vermont has operated a Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) bird banding station at the Green Mountain Audubon Center and also submits data to the United States Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Laboratory.  Master Bander Mark LaBarr has banded more than 5,000 birds over 25 years at our station.  

Tracking Wood Thrush in the Champlain Valley

Although their flute-like songs are an iconic summer sound, Wood Thrush have experienced drastic population declines in recent decades. Audubon Vermont participates in a US Fish & Wildlife Service project to deploy nanotags, tiny radio transmitters, on Wood Thrush across their hemispheric range. Audubon Vermont biologists and interns safely catch, measure, and attach nanotags to Wood Thrush breeding in the Champlain Valley. Signals from these transmitters are picked up by towers in the Motus Wildlife Tracking System during migration, shedding light on the migratory pathways and habitats Wood Thrush rely on. 

Program Contact

Mark LaBarr

Conservation Program Manager