Developing regional-scale models of migratory bird movements to improve siting decisions for wind farms and other industrial infrastructure

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We are using an array of existing and new sensors that is designed to track migratory birds throughout the southern half of the province of New Brunswick. The sensors include small microphones (audiomoths) that can be used to detect the calls of migratory birds as they fly overhead, large weather radars, that provide a very broad-scale overview of where birds stop during migration, and the routes and altitudes at which they fly, small marine radars which can provide a very fine-scale picture of how birds move over smaller (2 x 2 km) areas, and automated telemetry receivers that can track birds with very light weight VHF transmitters. We will examine the patterns of movements of a range of species, from shorebirds, to thrushes, swallows, warblers and seaducks, and relate those patterns of movement to geographical features (coastlines), topographical features (hills and valleys) and weather. The resulting data will be used in statistical models to improve our ability to predict where birds fly under various weather conditions (and times of year) which will be used to help predict good and bad places for large industrial infrastructure such as wind farms. The data will also provide a new, unprecedented picture of how a range of species move through the landscape during migration, which will add to our knowledge and understanding of the process of bird migration.