Mongolian Migratory Bird Program

Bird migration is at the core of ornithological research. In early times, researchers started using metal rings to study bird migration. This method is still commonly used today worldwide. However advanced techniques such as the deployment of bio-logging devices is greatly expanding our knowledge of this behaviour. With new tracking technologies we are able to quantify migratory movements of birds and animals throughout their annual life cycles in much greater detail than ever before. As a result, the tracking annual movement of animals is getting more exciting than ever before. 

Satellite and cellular GPS tracking technologies are helping us to understand more about where Mongolian birds winter and when they start and finish their migration, and where they stopover and stage during migration. We have to use such modern technologies because we can learn a lot in relatively short time. As Mongolian ornithology community is very small, the GPS technology advancement is giving us more high resolution data and results in a relatively short time.

Mongolian Migratory Bird Program is a long term research program initiated by WSCC biologists. We aim to identify flyways of key migratory bird populations from Mongolia, locate key stopover sites along the flyway, and monitor their population and migration phenology in relation to land use and climate change in the region.