New Discoveries in Bird Migration
Bridget Stutchbury
Author
05/02/2016
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406
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Description
Each fall, billions of songbirds leave North America on an epic journey to their far-away wintering grounds in Central and South America where many live in tropical forests shared by toucans, howler monkeys and jaguars. Dozens of species have experienced serious, long-term population declines that are driven in part by the threats that these birds face during migration and while in the tropics or on their northern breeding grounds. Only recently has it been possible to track the entire migration of individual songbirds to find out how they accomplish their amazing 10,000 km (or more!) round trip and to map out critical habitats used during migration. Dr. Stutchbury will reveal her surprising migration tracking results for Purple Martins and Wood Thrushes and discuss how this research can help us save songbirds.
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- [00:00:00.000](audience applauds)
- [00:00:00.926]Thank you, Mary.
- [00:00:02.668]This time of year is just a spectacular time of year
- [00:00:05.011]for people and birds.
- [00:00:06.297]It's spring.
- [00:00:07.657]And this journey that we're gonna take together
- [00:00:09.736]this afternoon is gonna sorta track the individual journeys
- [00:00:13.418]of some of our most amazing birds.
- [00:00:16.314]Just imagine that in the Canadian boreal forest,
- [00:00:20.072]we have some 2 to 3 billion breeding pairs of songbirds.
- [00:00:24.464]And almost all of them leave during the winter.
- [00:00:27.526]No surprise why.
- [00:00:29.422]And right now, they're on their way back.
- [00:00:32.045]So what I'm gonna talk to you about this afternoon
- [00:00:33.893]is sort of two stories.
- [00:00:35.397]One about the amazing feats of individual birds
- [00:00:39.304]and how new technology has allowed us.
- [00:00:43.424]Somebody's saying,
- [00:00:45.646]it's not loud enough?
- [00:00:47.244]Ok, sure.
- [00:00:48.980]Got it.
- [00:00:49.632]Better?
- [00:00:51.317]Better?
- [00:00:52.500]Got it, thank you.
- [00:00:55.609]So these new technologies that we have now
- [00:00:57.665]allows us, for the first time ever, to be able
- [00:01:00.312]to track the movements of individual birds round-trip,
- [00:01:03.808]from start to finish on their migration.
- [00:01:06.247]So we'll look at some of the examples of this.
- [00:01:09.151]And then, now that this technology's available,
- [00:01:12.185]it allows us to answer conservation questions
- [00:01:15.544]that were intractable before.
- [00:01:17.924]So we'll see a number of these maps
- [00:01:19.366]as we move through the talk, but this is an example
- [00:01:21.500]of what we can do with this technology.
- [00:01:24.411]You can put one of these tracking devices
- [00:01:26.965]on a purple martin, say, here in Alberta,
- [00:01:28.890]one of our study colonies.
- [00:01:31.438]You do this late in the summer
- [00:01:32.589]when they're still feeding their offspring.
- [00:01:34.602]Then you walk away and completely ignore your bird.
- [00:01:36.899]It goes off and does its spectacular migration
- [00:01:39.447]all the way down here to South America,
- [00:01:41.874]and comes back in the spring to exactly the same colony
- [00:01:44.505]where you equipped it with a tracking device
- [00:01:46.347]almost a year earlier.
- [00:01:47.831]And you can take that tracking device off,
- [00:01:50.149]analyze the data, and create these kinds of maps.
- [00:01:53.260]So, some people, they're saying
- [00:01:54.386]that we can actually learn more from one year
- [00:01:57.140]of geolocator tracking than we can
- [00:01:59.033]from 50 years of bird-banding,
- [00:02:01.146]just to put things in context.
- [00:02:04.656]So part of the story this afternoon is
- [00:02:07.910]trying to imagine what individual birds
- [00:02:10.532]are experiencing as they go through these journeys.
- [00:02:13.981]So we're gonna watch one of these videos.
- [00:02:15.425]This is from The Messenger,
- [00:02:16.709]and you'll hear later about these kind of videos are done.
- [00:02:23.120](bird calls)
- [00:02:24.503]This is a black-throated blue warbler.
- [00:02:28.771]They do migrate at night.
- [00:02:29.992]They use the stars to navigate.
- [00:02:34.079](bird calls)
- [00:02:35.754]They can give little call notes at night
- [00:02:37.380]to let other birds know where they are.
- [00:02:40.240](bird calls)
- [00:02:49.238]So imagine at night, millions of birds taking flight,
- [00:02:52.622]every night after sunset.
- [00:02:57.910]Black-throated blue warblers do undergo
- [00:02:59.843]these massive migrations,
- [00:03:01.277]like countless other migratory songbird species
- [00:03:04.159]that we have here in North America.
- [00:03:07.727]As they go through their journey
- [00:03:08.906]from the Canadian boreal forest
- [00:03:10.423]down to parts in Central or South America,
- [00:03:12.641]imagine what the landscape must look like
- [00:03:14.770]underneath their wings.
- [00:03:16.484]For a bird like the Wilson's warbler here,
- [00:03:18.886]if they're lucky enough,
- [00:03:19.747]they'll find an area in the boreal forest
- [00:03:21.361]that hasn't been exposed to the oil and gas industry
- [00:03:24.435]and hasn't been logged.
- [00:03:26.363]But even so, even if they have a pristine breeding site,
- [00:03:29.255]they have to get to their wintering grounds and back safely
- [00:03:32.627]in order to breed a second time.
- [00:03:35.272]Most birds in the east will fly down the eastern seaboard
- [00:03:38.784]where they have to somehow get through this obstacle course
- [00:03:41.475]of cities that now lies in their way.
- [00:03:44.349]Before they cross the Gulf of Mexico,
- [00:03:46.083]they need to refuel.
- [00:03:47.258]They need safe habitat to refuel and put on the fat,
- [00:03:50.124]which is what they burn while they're migrating.
- [00:03:52.721]Many areas along the Gulf Coast
- [00:03:56.574]have almost no stopover habitat left.
- [00:03:59.004]The forests have been cut down
- [00:04:00.327]and replaced with agricultural fields.
- [00:04:03.448]So the conservation part of this story is,
- [00:04:06.067]how do individual birds manage to make these trips
- [00:04:08.624]back and forth, and what kind of threats
- [00:04:10.746]do they face along the way?
- [00:04:14.826]So this new tracking technology that we have
- [00:04:16.680]is called geolocators.
- [00:04:18.109]It's actually kind of older technology in a way.
- [00:04:20.499]It's just been miniaturized in recent years
- [00:04:23.646]to make them small enough
- [00:04:24.845]that you can put them on the backs of a tiny songbird.
- [00:04:27.807]This is what one looks like.
- [00:04:29.282]There's a light sensor at the end of this little stalk.
- [00:04:32.203]And down here is the battery and circuit board
- [00:04:34.469]where all the data are stored.
- [00:04:36.492]And so you'll see some pictures in a minute.
- [00:04:37.973]It just sits on the lower back of the bird.
- [00:04:39.781]There's a little harness that goes around their legs,
- [00:04:41.631]like kids putting on their school backpack in the morning.
- [00:04:44.684]And the entire time that the bird is away,
- [00:04:47.780]this unit is collecting light levels,
- [00:04:50.780]light intensity levels, every two or three minutes,
- [00:04:53.980]all day, every day.
- [00:04:55.218]All day and night, day and night.
- [00:04:56.365]And some of these devices,
- [00:04:57.760]like a one-and-a-half-gram device, can last over a year.
- [00:05:02.496]So when you get the bird back,
- [00:05:03.766]the trick to these geolocators is,
- [00:05:05.990]you have to be able to recapture the bird.
- [00:05:08.326]So you put them on the breeding sites,
- [00:05:09.892]and fortunately for us, many songbirds
- [00:05:13.176]are very faithful to their breeding territories.
- [00:05:16.185]They've already established their dominance
- [00:05:18.563]and control of that territory.
- [00:05:20.359]And if they survive migration,
- [00:05:22.193]they can come back and reclaim that territory
- [00:05:25.125]with very little difficulty.
- [00:05:26.699]So there is that tendency to come back home to breed.
- [00:05:30.755]And so, we have to have a bird survive this trip,
- [00:05:33.802]and we also have to be able to catch it
- [00:05:35.163]and get the geolocator off
- [00:05:36.643]before we can get any of these data.
- [00:05:40.159]After all of that, when you download the data,
- [00:05:41.933]frankly it looks kind of boring.
- [00:05:43.899]These are light level data over time.
- [00:05:46.009]So this is time,
- [00:05:47.341]and this shows the light levels.
- [00:05:48.810]And you can see that the day-night cycles
- [00:05:51.537]on this geolocator, it's dark and then it gets very bright.
- [00:05:55.092]And it stays bright for a period of time.
- [00:05:57.032]This is the daytime.
- [00:05:57.932]Then it gets dark again. Sunset.
- [00:06:00.384]So, really what we're doing here is timing,
- [00:06:03.305]for wherever the bird is on the planet,
- [00:06:05.193]sunrise and sunset times.
- [00:06:07.835]And it really works kind of well,
- [00:06:09.105]because, if you were to look up this information,
- [00:06:11.230]this is the fourth of May 2007,
- [00:06:14.275]and you can measure sunrise and sunset times
- [00:06:16.819]in universal Greenwich Mean Time.
- [00:06:19.064]And if you went and looked this up
- [00:06:20.223]on your phone or something,
- [00:06:21.353]you would be able to tell me where this geolocator was
- [00:06:23.653]with only this information.
- [00:06:25.885]You wouldn't know exactly where it was,
- [00:06:27.566]not a latitude and longitude exactly.
- [00:06:29.985]It's not a GPS,
- [00:06:30.845]but you would know that this geolocator
- [00:06:32.733]was somewhere in the Toronto area.
- [00:06:34.573]In fact, we had it on the roof of the biology building
- [00:06:36.748]testing these things out and making sure that they worked.
- [00:06:40.805]So you can translate sunrise and sunset times
- [00:06:43.752]into latitude and longitude
- [00:06:45.522]and make these fairly detailed maps.
- [00:06:48.356]It's not as good as GPS,
- [00:06:50.116]but it's the best we can do right now
- [00:06:52.304]with the technology we have available.
- [00:06:55.556]So here's an example of the kinds of information
- [00:06:57.567]you can get, unprecedented for migratory songbirds.
- [00:07:01.696]This shows the spring migration of a wood thrush.
- [00:07:05.145]Most of my research has been done
- [00:07:08.017]in northwestern Pennsylvania,
- [00:07:09.621]where my family and I have a long-term study site.
- [00:07:12.869]And so, what we had done is tagged this male wood thrush.
- [00:07:16.178]You can see the geolocator on his back right here.
- [00:07:18.676]You tag them when they're feeding their young.
- [00:07:21.016]And then, really, you don't see very much of them again
- [00:07:23.542]until they come back the next May.
- [00:07:26.607]We know from the geolocator data, after analyzing,
- [00:07:29.364]that it spent the winter here in eastern Honduras someplace.
- [00:07:34.257]These lines show the error around our estimate.
- [00:07:38.020]This is based on sunrise and sunset times,
- [00:07:40.358]so if you have a morning where it's very, very rainy,
- [00:07:42.510]or the bird's in a really dense tropical rainforest,
- [00:07:46.040]the time of sunrise in the geolocator
- [00:07:48.346]is not gonna exactly match true sunrise.
- [00:07:51.053]And that's why these are not as precise as GPS.
- [00:07:55.031]But knowing that wood thrushes can winter anywhere
- [00:07:57.011]from southern Mexico all the way down to Panama,
- [00:07:59.972]the geolocator allows us to put a bull's eye
- [00:08:02.501]around where that bird spent the winter,
- [00:08:04.206]somewhere in here.
- [00:08:06.559]And we get fairly precise dates, timing.
- [00:08:10.563]We know this bird arrived on its winter territory
- [00:08:13.294]on the first of November.
- [00:08:14.948]And we know it stayed there until the 21st of April.
- [00:08:18.470]Once these birds start moving,
- [00:08:19.962]it's really, really obvious when you're looking at the maps
- [00:08:23.047]on the software, that the bird is suddenly moving
- [00:08:26.405]in a direction consistent with spring and fall migration.
- [00:08:29.697]And this is a really good example.
- [00:08:31.250]This bird spent the entire winter here,
- [00:08:33.064]and suddenly, on the 22nd of April,
- [00:08:35.735]it's up here on the Yucatan Peninsula.
- [00:08:38.365]The bird rests here for a couple of days,
- [00:08:40.874]launches across the Gulf of Mexico
- [00:08:42.888]and makes landfall in the Mississippi River Delta.
- [00:08:45.881]This is a classic flyway.
- [00:08:47.750]Bird comes up the Mississippi River area
- [00:08:50.212]and back on its breeding territory by the third of May.
- [00:08:53.938]So this bird made the trip from Central America
- [00:08:57.019]back to the Canadian-U.S. border in less than two weeks.
- [00:09:01.491]It's really quite remarkable how quickly
- [00:09:03.714]they can make this journey.
- [00:09:07.177]One of the other things the geolocators can tell us
- [00:09:09.479]about the individual behaviors
- [00:09:11.624]is that there can be a lot of variation in migration route.
- [00:09:15.537]Not all of them go across the Gulf of Mexico.
- [00:09:19.182]In the very first year we did the study,
- [00:09:20.789]my lab was the first to put these geolocators on songbirds,
- [00:09:24.783]and in the first year we did the study,
- [00:09:26.192]we put 16 geolocators on wood thrushes
- [00:09:29.108]in our Pennsylvania forest.
- [00:09:31.035]And at the time, we really had no idea
- [00:09:34.109]how many would come back the next year,
- [00:09:35.902]because no one had ever tried this before.
- [00:09:39.008]And we feel really lucky, because in that very first year
- [00:09:41.436]we got five wood thrushes coming back,
- [00:09:44.304]carrying their geolocators,
- [00:09:45.934]and we could make maps for all of them.
- [00:09:48.336]And the fifth one was the one
- [00:09:49.873]that I'm gonna show you here.
- [00:09:51.108]It's a female, who, my students actually felt kinda bad,
- [00:09:54.145]because their job was to search the forests for nests
- [00:09:58.668]and banded birds and spot the ones that had geolocators.
- [00:10:02.823]And when they came in early June,
- [00:10:05.077]they came running into my farmhouse
- [00:10:07.212]holding up a little geolocator.
- [00:10:08.851]"We got a fifth one!"
- [00:10:10.580]And it was from this female.
- [00:10:12.113]They had just found her nest,
- [00:10:14.575]which in early June is kind of late for finding nests,
- [00:10:17.958]first nests of females.
- [00:10:20.075]And they really were puzzled how come
- [00:10:21.512]they hadn't found her earlier in the year.
- [00:10:24.360]But when we look at her map,
- [00:10:25.508]we can see what she did.
- [00:10:27.063]So she also, you'll see this is the pattern,
- [00:10:29.347]she also spent the winter in the same region,
- [00:10:31.445]eastern Honduras, or perhaps even eastern Nicaragua.
- [00:10:35.689]And she also suddenly made a westward movement
- [00:10:38.744]to the Yucatan Peninsula.
- [00:10:40.776]But this time, this bird went around the Gulf of Mexico.
- [00:10:45.538]We don't know why,
- [00:10:46.528]but she took a long, slow detour, and by the 18th of May,
- [00:10:51.429]she was here on the Texas, U.S. border,
- [00:10:54.257]whereas on our study site up here,
- [00:10:56.608]by the 18th of May, almost every single female
- [00:10:59.562]is already nest-building, if not egg-laying.
- [00:11:03.290]So this taught us that these geolocators can reveal
- [00:11:07.598]these unusual migratory routes and behaviors
- [00:11:11.079]that, without these kinds of tracking devices,
- [00:11:13.175]we would have no idea what's going on.
- [00:11:17.980]She finally got back on the 26th of May.
- [00:11:21.271]Very, very late.
- [00:11:22.293]And this explains for us why my students
- [00:11:25.225]hadn't been able to find her nest earlier.
- [00:11:27.232]Because she wasn't there yet.
- [00:11:31.871]So now that we can do this kind of tracking,
- [00:11:33.809]what kinds of conversation questions
- [00:11:36.768]can we answer with these?
- [00:11:39.027]The wood thrush, unfortunately, is declining
- [00:11:41.242]across its breeding range.
- [00:11:42.761]It's a classic example of a deciduous forest songbird
- [00:11:46.127]that's just going downhill.
- [00:11:48.413]These are data from the Breeding Bird Survey
- [00:11:51.394]showing average number of wood thrushes per route
- [00:11:54.725]back in the 1960s and '70s versus today.
- [00:11:58.686]Overall, it's about a 50% drop in numbers.
- [00:12:02.787]This is within my own lifetime,
- [00:12:04.272]so it's really very personal.
- [00:12:06.785]We know from studying wood thrushes on the breeding grounds
- [00:12:10.703]what some of their problems are.
- [00:12:13.156]Most of the forests of eastern United States
- [00:12:17.414]have been fragmented and cut down.
- [00:12:19.449]There are still large forests left in some places,
- [00:12:21.929]but for many wood thrushes, this is the sort
- [00:12:24.552]of breeding habitat that they're facing,
- [00:12:26.891]a small forest fragment surrounded by agriculture.
- [00:12:30.471]And we know from numerous studies
- [00:12:32.841]that when not just wood thrushes,
- [00:12:34.657]but when other forest birds nest in small patches like this,
- [00:12:38.481]they have much higher nest predation
- [00:12:41.241]and much higher cowbird predation.
- [00:12:44.165]So, cowbirds are birds that lay their eggs
- [00:12:47.161]in other species' nests and leave the parents
- [00:12:49.949]to raise the babies for them.
- [00:12:51.944]So they're kind of like your worst mother.
- [00:12:54.162]Cowbirds never build their own nest,
- [00:12:55.886]and they never take care of their own babies.
- [00:12:58.157]And cowbirds like agricultural landscapes,
- [00:13:00.414]so when you have a forest fragment like this,
- [00:13:02.386]surrounded by agriculture,
- [00:13:04.067]very high levels of cowbird parasitism,
- [00:13:06.457]very high levels of nest predation.
- [00:13:08.585]So we know that this is one of the problems.
- [00:13:11.878]But when we're looking at the conservation
- [00:13:13.453]of migratory songbirds, we have to consider,
- [00:13:16.409]what are the threats all the way along the route
- [00:13:19.420]down to their wintering grounds and back again?
- [00:13:22.302]And this has been hard to really sort out in the past,
- [00:13:25.515]because we didn't have this kind of tracking technology
- [00:13:28.909]to try to identify where are the bottlenecks on migration
- [00:13:32.617]and where the particular breeding populations
- [00:13:35.560]spend their winter.
- [00:13:38.754]So one of the important questions is,
- [00:13:40.330]how does tropical deforestation impact breeding populations?
- [00:13:45.446]We want to be able to predict
- [00:13:46.757]how loss of a forest in one part of the wintering grounds
- [00:13:50.673]affects the breeding population.
- [00:13:53.063]And there are really two possible scenarios.
- [00:13:56.179]And, again, we need the tracking technology to tell us
- [00:13:58.773]which one of these two is the correct answer.
- [00:14:02.427]One possibility is that birds
- [00:14:04.173]from the particular breeding region kind of scatter
- [00:14:07.472]across the wintering grounds,
- [00:14:09.530]that there's really no matching up of,
- [00:14:11.424]you breed here and therefore you winter here.
- [00:14:14.799]If this was the case, if you lost forest
- [00:14:16.651]in one particular place, it would affect birds
- [00:14:19.501]from across the breeding range,
- [00:14:21.671]because they'd completely mix up on the wintering grounds.
- [00:14:25.060]But another alternative is that you might have
- [00:14:28.706]birds from the east, for instance, wintering
- [00:14:31.341]on the eastern part of the winter range
- [00:14:33.218]and birds from the west
- [00:14:34.503]sticking to the western part of the wintering range.
- [00:14:37.611]This is called migratory connectivity.
- [00:14:40.155]And the implications of it are huge.
- [00:14:42.260]It means that if you lose forest
- [00:14:44.062]in one part of the wintering range,
- [00:14:46.048]you'll have a big impact on one part of the breeding range.
- [00:14:50.632]So one of the basic questions in the conservation
- [00:14:53.819]of these migratory songbirds is, which one
- [00:14:56.256]of these two alternatives applies to a given species?
- [00:15:01.329]Now that we have this tracking technology,
- [00:15:02.945]we can answer this question.
- [00:15:05.050]If we get enough geolocators.
- [00:15:07.297]if you set up study sites across the breeding grounds
- [00:15:09.964]and track your birds from different parts
- [00:15:11.848]of the breeding range, you can put together
- [00:15:14.274]what we call a migratory network or a map,
- [00:15:17.144]showing which breeding populations go where.
- [00:15:20.885]So we've done this on wood thrushes.
- [00:15:22.400]It's a four- or five-year project.
- [00:15:25.851]Even tracking birds from a single population
- [00:15:28.478]is very time-consuming, costly.
- [00:15:31.507]Being able to do it on multiple populations even more so.
- [00:15:35.608]We did collaborate with Peter Marra from the Smithsonian,
- [00:15:38.133]who was tracking birds from some of the breeding sites.
- [00:15:41.239]And what we found,
- [00:15:43.284]the different stars here are the different study sites,
- [00:15:45.710]where we were able to put geolocators
- [00:15:47.359]on breeding wood thrushes.
- [00:15:49.660]And they're all kind of color-coded here.
- [00:15:52.569]And, so if you look at the birds
- [00:15:54.437]from the northeastern part of the breeding range
- [00:15:57.403]and look at where do they winter,
- [00:15:59.624]their wintering sites are packed very densely in here,
- [00:16:02.803]eastern Honduras, Nicaragua, and western Costa Rica.
- [00:16:05.844]Just like the two wood thrushes I showed you
- [00:16:07.626]from Pennsylvania, they're not oddballs.
- [00:16:10.096]All the birds from there almost exclusively winter
- [00:16:13.445]in this one, narrow region.
- [00:16:16.571]What about the study sites over here,
- [00:16:18.346]farther to the south and the west?
- [00:16:20.493]As you'll see in a minute, they actually prefer
- [00:16:22.429]a different part of the wintering grounds.
- [00:16:25.877]You track birds from here, like southern Illinois,
- [00:16:28.562]you'll find that they're over here
- [00:16:29.846]in the western part of their breeding grounds.
- [00:16:33.097]So we have this sort of parallel migration system
- [00:16:35.976]in wood thrushes, where the eastern birds stay to the east,
- [00:16:38.448]and the western ones prefer the western side.
- [00:16:41.974]So we don't have complete mixing.
- [00:16:43.712]We have something more at the other end of the range,
- [00:16:45.845]of strong migratory connectivity.
- [00:16:51.887]We can make a migratory network for the first time.
- [00:16:55.276]When you first look at these figures,
- [00:16:57.504]they look kind of confusing.
- [00:16:58.675]There's different colored lines going everywhere
- [00:17:00.907]and numbers on it, and it takes a minute or two
- [00:17:03.125]to kind of get a hang of what this really means.
- [00:17:06.741]So what we've done, we also track birds
- [00:17:08.587]from the wintering grounds north to the breeding grounds.
- [00:17:12.100]So by doing it both directions, we can put together
- [00:17:14.598]sort of a snapshot look of how many birds
- [00:17:18.384]are going from A to B.
- [00:17:20.782]So, these different circles represent the breeding grounds:
- [00:17:25.511]the northeastern, central eastern,
- [00:17:27.124]southeastern, and western.
- [00:17:28.293]You just very simplistically divide up the breeding grounds
- [00:17:30.785]into four parts.
- [00:17:33.630]And then you ask yourself how many wood thrushes
- [00:17:35.994]occur in each of these circles.
- [00:17:37.944]So, of all the wood thrushes in North America,
- [00:17:39.944]how many are breeding in the northeast?
- [00:17:42.286]22%.
- [00:17:43.754]Sorry.
- [00:17:45.859]How many wood thrushes are in the central east?
- [00:17:48.399]36% of wood thrushes occupy here.
- [00:17:50.949]And we can use the Breeding Bird Survey data
- [00:17:52.704]to get at these estimates.
- [00:17:54.325]So fine.
- [00:17:55.173]Now we're asking how many birds go where.
- [00:17:57.547]You can see northeastern birds almost exclusively
- [00:18:00.463]go here to eastern Central America.
- [00:18:03.101]Most of the central eastern birds winter here
- [00:18:05.888]in eastern Central America.
- [00:18:07.691]So you can see that the different colored lines
- [00:18:10.600]are just giving you a map of who's going where,
- [00:18:13.764]what are the destinations.
- [00:18:16.020]And once you sort through all of this, you can say,
- [00:18:17.868]"Well, for the time ever, we can answer the question,
- [00:18:20.423]"what percentage of all wood thrushes in North America
- [00:18:24.979]"depend on different parts of the wintering grounds?"
- [00:18:28.025]And if you look in the boxes down here,
- [00:18:29.609]this is the answer.
- [00:18:30.631]This is the point of doing all the numbers and the mapping.
- [00:18:33.759]We can now estimate that 54% of all wood thrushes
- [00:18:37.563]rely on the forests of eastern Honduras,
- [00:18:40.118]Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
- [00:18:41.911]That one tiny area in Central America supports
- [00:18:45.320]over half the wood thrushes in all of North America.
- [00:18:49.389]Over here to the west, the southern Mexico region,
- [00:18:53.152]near Veracruz, also important for conservation.
- [00:18:56.696]But for wood thrushes in particular,
- [00:18:58.488]that area is not important.
- [00:19:00.613]Only 5% of wood thrushes, we estimate, go there at all.
- [00:19:05.004]So if you're trying to make
- [00:19:05.865]these difficult conservation decisions,
- [00:19:07.827]where do we invest our limited resources
- [00:19:09.973]to help save these birds, we need information like this
- [00:19:13.469]to make sort of business-like decisions
- [00:19:15.847]on where can we have the most impact,
- [00:19:17.606]where should we focus our efforts to stop these species
- [00:19:20.400]who are declining from getting any worse.
- [00:19:23.924]And at least for the wood thrush,
- [00:19:25.370]this region here, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica,
- [00:19:28.725]is the most important region.
- [00:19:32.469]So this shows these same sort of circles
- [00:19:34.649]of these three different possible wintering regions
- [00:19:37.519]for wood thrushes and gives us a glimpse
- [00:19:39.742]of the threats that they're facing there,
- [00:19:42.949]i.e. tropical deforestation.
- [00:19:44.835]What these colors show is the percentage of forest loss
- [00:19:48.313]in only five years in different blocks in this region.
- [00:19:52.494]So if it shows up as red or orange or yellow,
- [00:19:54.924]it means very high deforestation rate.
- [00:19:59.015]These are the two core wintering areas for wood thrushes.
- [00:20:03.028]And you can see for yourself, by looking at the colors,
- [00:20:06.127]that these are undergoing
- [00:20:08.489]very high rates of tropical deforestation.
- [00:20:11.891]In fact, even on a global scale, world-wide scale,
- [00:20:15.918]eastern Nicaragua, right here, and northern Guatemala
- [00:20:20.000]show up as global deforestation hot spots.
- [00:20:24.666]And it's very unfortunate for us that wood thrushes
- [00:20:27.561]depend on these two places.
- [00:20:29.632]And both these places are undergoing massive habitat loss.
- [00:20:34.533]The figure at the bottom shows a forecast
- [00:20:36.998]from the Nicaraguan Department of Forestry
- [00:20:39.777]on what the future prospects are
- [00:20:41.843]for forest cover in Nicaragua.
- [00:20:44.400]And if you remember the map at the beginning,
- [00:20:46.077]showing wood thrushes declining over time since the 1960s,
- [00:20:50.498]and then look at these maps.
- [00:20:52.030]Back in 1983, still extensive forest cover
- [00:20:55.263]in eastern Nicaragua.
- [00:20:56.305]By 2000 much of it was gone.
- [00:20:58.682]And by 2050 all that remains really are these areas
- [00:21:02.075]that are protected in some parts of the country.
- [00:21:06.110]So the prospects for wood thrush really are kind of bleak.
- [00:21:09.916]I don't think they will go extinct,
- [00:21:11.902]because there are these large protected areas
- [00:21:13.999]that will sustain small numbers of wood thrushes.
- [00:21:16.390]But the question is,
- [00:21:17.277]how do we stop the declines from being so precipitous?
- [00:21:21.813]And there is one answer that will help.
- [00:21:24.631]And that is, shade coffee.
- [00:21:26.826]So, about half of Americans drink coffee every single day.
- [00:21:31.018]But very few of them think about
- [00:21:32.295]where their coffee comes from and what the implications
- [00:21:34.920]of that might be for nature in general,
- [00:21:37.973]and, in particular, for people who love birds
- [00:21:40.949]and birdwatchers, that paying attention
- [00:21:44.463]to where your coffee comes from
- [00:21:46.139]can actually help save migratory songbirds.
- [00:21:49.722]This is a traditional shade coffee farm,
- [00:21:51.519]showing different layers of a forest
- [00:21:53.406]with a closed canopy.
- [00:21:55.447]The coffee plants are these little things along the bottom.
- [00:21:57.883]They grow in the shade,
- [00:21:59.318]and they produce beautiful arabica, fabulous-tasting coffee.
- [00:22:03.957]Unfortunately, over the past 20 or 30 years,
- [00:22:06.258]there's been a huge shift away from small, traditional farms
- [00:22:10.271]to larger farms that have little shade, or even worse,
- [00:22:13.557]farms that are sun-grown coffee.
- [00:22:16.321]So this is what a sun-grown coffee looks like.
- [00:22:18.241]It look like rows of corn.
- [00:22:20.605]And in order to grow coffee like this,
- [00:22:22.211]you have to dump it with fertilizers, pesticides,
- [00:22:26.330]fungicides, massive amounts of agro-chemicals.
- [00:22:30.357]And, really, it's a different, very bad-tasting coffee.
- [00:22:33.296]It doesn't even taste good.
- [00:22:34.156]There's no habitat for wildlife.
- [00:22:36.873]So, in places like eastern Nicaragua and eastern Honduras,
- [00:22:40.165]those are major coffee-growing regions.
- [00:22:43.273]There are many farmers in both countries
- [00:22:45.294]who still have these traditional shade coffee farms,
- [00:22:47.875]but they're under a lot of pressure
- [00:22:49.115]to convert to sun coffee.
- [00:22:51.494]If we can create a market for true shade-grown coffee,
- [00:22:55.125]bird-friendly coffee, we can help support
- [00:22:57.551]a habitat for birds, which otherwise wouldn't be there.
- [00:23:00.278]It's one of the few examples where you can grow
- [00:23:02.679]a high-value agricultural product,
- [00:23:05.591]while still providing important habitat for wildlife.
- [00:23:09.256]So one of the missions of The Messenger
- [00:23:11.073]is to get the word out about bird-friendly coffee
- [00:23:14.931]and how millions of us can actually help save songbirds
- [00:23:18.998]merely by buying a different kind of coffee in the morning.
- [00:23:25.079]We've talked a lot about wintering habitat loss
- [00:23:27.680]in the case of the wood thrush
- [00:23:28.960]and how that's impacting population declines.
- [00:23:32.232]But birds still need to get there and back.
- [00:23:34.558]And one other thing we could learn from these geolocators
- [00:23:37.707]is what kind of migration routes birds use,
- [00:23:40.336]kind of like the wood thrushes coming back in the spring.
- [00:23:42.875]One went around the Gulf.
- [00:23:44.194]One went across the Gulf.
- [00:23:45.468]Which is the more normal pattern?
- [00:23:47.816]So in our wood thrush tracking,
- [00:23:49.049]we'd been able to put all the birds on the same map
- [00:23:52.585]and look for those bottlenecks that occur
- [00:23:56.045]when all the birds kind of converge one one spot,
- [00:23:58.583]because that's one way to identify
- [00:24:00.015]important conservation areas, is to look at the sites
- [00:24:03.574]that are used by a large proportion of the birds.
- [00:24:07.275]And these maps also show us how daunting the task is
- [00:24:10.411]of trying to save that habitat for the migration
- [00:24:13.886]part of the journey, not just the destination,
- [00:24:16.288]because wood thrushes do a loop migration.
- [00:24:19.730]In the fall, they go down the eastern seaboard.
- [00:24:23.384]Many of them go through Florida and western Cuba
- [00:24:26.141]to get to their wintering grounds.
- [00:24:28.374]But in the spring,
- [00:24:29.263]they come back a completely different way.
- [00:24:31.814]As we've seen with the two examples,
- [00:24:33.397]they come up to the Yucatan Peninsula,
- [00:24:35.538]cross the Mississippi River Delta, and come back home again.
- [00:24:39.851]There's a few more oddballs that go around the Gulf,
- [00:24:41.861]but the vast majority go across here.
- [00:24:44.348]And you can see with these little pie diagrams
- [00:24:46.900]that over 75% of wood thrushes
- [00:24:49.462]make landfall right here in the Mississippi River Delta.
- [00:24:53.309]That tells us that that area is really, really important
- [00:24:56.566]for conservation for wood thrushes.
- [00:25:01.143]We can make these complicated network maps now,
- [00:25:03.832]not just for the wintering site,
- [00:25:05.420]but for the migration routes.
- [00:25:07.311]And, again, when you first look at these, it's like,
- [00:25:09.084]"No, don't make me look at these again.
- [00:25:10.968]"They're too complicated."
- [00:25:12.432]But we need to do the simple math
- [00:25:15.172]to try to put numbers on what we found.
- [00:25:17.272]It's nice to draw migration maps,
- [00:25:19.811]but we want to try to estimate what percentage
- [00:25:22.217]of all wood thrushes go one way versus another.
- [00:25:24.722]And you can see, this sort of captures
- [00:25:27.114]the larger problem of wood thrush conservation
- [00:25:29.740]and, really, forest songbird conservation in general.
- [00:25:32.868]This middle one is the one I showed you already
- [00:25:34.749]for wintering grounds.
- [00:25:35.862]56% of wood thrushes
- [00:25:38.215]use eastern Honduras and Nicaragua.
- [00:25:42.200]But now we can ask, "Well, what about fall migration?
- [00:25:44.555]"Where is the bottleneck on fall migration?"
- [00:25:46.924]52% of wood thrushes come through southern Florida.
- [00:25:51.077]And so, for wood thrushes, not only did they need
- [00:25:54.161]habitat conservation in this part
- [00:25:56.174]of their wintering grounds,
- [00:25:57.258]but also they need stopover sites in southern Florida.
- [00:26:01.012]What about spring migration?
- [00:26:02.755]As I told you already, 71% of them come back
- [00:26:04.963]through the central Gulf, the Mississippi River Delta.
- [00:26:08.271]So if we want to save wood thrushes
- [00:26:10.015]and we neglect this area,
- [00:26:11.870]that's gonna be the weak link in the chain, right?
- [00:26:15.266]So, really to do this properly,
- [00:26:16.784]we need to do all three things
- [00:26:18.662]so that birds have the highest chance
- [00:26:21.245]of being able to make this journey successfully.
- [00:26:26.166]Well, the other species that I've been studying
- [00:26:27.966]with these migration tracking devices are purple martins.
- [00:26:31.524]As Mary mentioned,
- [00:26:32.447]I studied purple martins for my PhD long ago,
- [00:26:35.082]and it was really exciting for me to come back
- [00:26:36.768]and study them again with new questions and new technology.
- [00:26:41.603]Purple martins are also declining, unfortunately,
- [00:26:44.771]largely in the northern part of the range.
- [00:26:46.592]And they're a member of a guild called aerial insectivores
- [00:26:49.813]in that they catch flying insects on the wing,
- [00:26:53.062]so they're extremely agile fliers.
- [00:26:56.407]And they catch all their food
- [00:26:58.035]by catching insects on the wing.
- [00:26:59.558]Purple martins happen to be colonial,
- [00:27:01.137]and in eastern North America,
- [00:27:02.665]they really occupy only bird boxes.
- [00:27:04.642]They've given up their natural cavities
- [00:27:07.047]and rely on humans to provide nest housing for them.
- [00:27:10.733]And one of the questions that we wanted to answer is,
- [00:27:12.624]why are the northern populations declining
- [00:27:15.066]more than the southern ones?
- [00:27:16.333]And our first thought was, maybe the northern ones
- [00:27:18.453]are going to a different part of the wintering grounds
- [00:27:21.323]where they face different kinds of threats.
- [00:27:23.827]So we did the same kind of thing
- [00:27:24.893]that we did with wood thrushes.
- [00:27:26.011]You can set up tracking different breeding colonies
- [00:27:30.233]across North America.
- [00:27:33.282]The first time we did this was with purple martins
- [00:27:36.487]at our study site in northwestern Pennsylvania,
- [00:27:39.185]which you'll see if you get a chance to see The Messenger.
- [00:27:41.630]You'll see us in action there,
- [00:27:43.256]putting on geolocators and taking them off.
- [00:27:46.057]And, again, we can make these incredible migration maps
- [00:27:48.285]of individual birds and what they're able to accomplish.
- [00:27:52.023]Purple martins kind of surprised us.
- [00:27:53.674]They've been described in the literature
- [00:27:55.020]as being leisurely migrants, because, unlike wood thrushes,
- [00:27:58.413]they migrate during the daytime.
- [00:28:00.479]So it was kind of thought that they can snack
- [00:28:02.266]along the way by catching insects.
- [00:28:04.870]We know that they roost in huge numbers
- [00:28:08.548]along the way in marshes and under bridges,
- [00:28:11.688]and the thought was, "Well, they can just sort of
- [00:28:13.820]"slowly migrate their way down to where they're going.
- [00:28:16.298]"There's no real hurry."
- [00:28:18.282]But even the very first geolocator maps we made
- [00:28:20.666]for purple martins showed us how very wrong we were.
- [00:28:23.923]Purple martins kind of take off like a sling shot.
- [00:28:27.223]This bird here, for instance, left its breeding territory
- [00:28:29.776]on the 29th of August, was the last time
- [00:28:31.799]it was at its pre-migratory roost.
- [00:28:34.991]Within two days, it's at the U.S. Gulf Coast.
- [00:28:38.152]So you can imagine these guys are flying machines.
- [00:28:41.715]Long, tapered wings.
- [00:28:42.938]And they just go like little jets
- [00:28:44.372]all the way down to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
- [00:28:47.218]This bird here is flying about 400 kilometers a day,
- [00:28:50.505]which is about 250 miles a day
- [00:28:52.938]that they're covering on the wing,
- [00:28:54.913]which is really quite a feat for, again, a small bird
- [00:28:57.212]that I could fit easily in my hand.
- [00:29:00.537]These guys, instead of wintering in Central America,
- [00:29:02.760]they go all the way down to South America.
- [00:29:05.364]And you can see that these journeys in the fall
- [00:29:07.292]take quite a while.
- [00:29:08.953]They're really not in a great hurry in the fall,
- [00:29:10.753]and they get to their wintering areas
- [00:29:12.376]along the Amazon River sometime in October.
- [00:29:17.023]Not surprisingly, spring migration
- [00:29:18.911]is faster than fall migration.
- [00:29:21.821]Birds are in a hurry to get back to their nesting grounds
- [00:29:24.120]and claim a nesting site, and get a mate,
- [00:29:25.949]and get going on breeding.
- [00:29:27.822]So we know that spring migration is fairly fast,
- [00:29:29.876]and we saw that in the wood thrush.
- [00:29:31.257]In this example here, this purple martin left
- [00:29:34.155]its wintering grounds in Brazil on the 24th of April
- [00:29:37.727]and was back here in Pennsylvania by the 14th of May.
- [00:29:41.049]So that's only three weeks to travel all the way
- [00:29:43.361]from Brazil back to the Canada-U.S. border,
- [00:29:45.737]which is really quite remarkable.
- [00:29:47.830]We've also discovered in purple martins
- [00:29:50.054]that many of them make movements on the wintering grounds.
- [00:29:52.187]We always thought that once
- [00:29:53.220]they arrived at their destination,
- [00:29:54.656]they would stay there for the rest of the winter,
- [00:29:57.174]because migrating is dangerous and takes energy.
- [00:30:00.296]But you can see this bird here
- [00:30:01.977]actually moves around over long distances
- [00:30:05.151]within Brazil during the wintering period,
- [00:30:07.771]perhaps because food supplies are shifting,
- [00:30:10.414]rainfall patterns are shifting.
- [00:30:12.510]We're still trying to figure out just why exactly
- [00:30:14.446]they move such large distances
- [00:30:16.064]once they've already arrived there.
- [00:30:20.339]So our original question was whether northern populations
- [00:30:22.893]are going to different areas than southern ones.
- [00:30:24.935]And, basically, the answer is no.
- [00:30:26.405]This is the complete opposite of wood thrush.
- [00:30:29.173]There's complete and total mixing of breeding populations
- [00:30:32.572]on the wintering grounds.
- [00:30:34.251]So we have tracked birds from Alberta,
- [00:30:37.071]Corpus Christi, Texas, Orlando, Florida,
- [00:30:39.714]Disney is one of our partners,
- [00:30:41.844]New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia.
- [00:30:44.496]All of these birds are found in the same area in Brazil.
- [00:30:48.059]And any one roost site could have birds side by side
- [00:30:52.555]from Florida, Texas, and Alberta,
- [00:30:54.553]sitting side by side on a branch in the same roost.
- [00:30:57.002]It's really quite remarkable.
- [00:30:58.778]Complete and total mixing.
- [00:31:01.153]So we know at least a quick answer to our question,
- [00:31:03.242]are northern populations facing different threats
- [00:31:05.645]on their wintering grounds?
- [00:31:07.057]Well, the answer's no.
- [00:31:08.180]So we've ruled out that possibility, we think.
- [00:31:11.793]And you should notice here this,
- [00:31:13.081]I always try to point this out.
- [00:31:16.036]Our collaborators are people who have banding permits,
- [00:31:19.742]who band baby purple martins in the nest.
- [00:31:23.178]And some of them are biologists.
- [00:31:25.305]Some are people who are sort of citizen-scientists,
- [00:31:28.426]and they have banding permits and have outreach programs.
- [00:31:31.290]And so what we do is we go in there
- [00:31:32.718]and we train them how to put geolocators on.
- [00:31:35.915]And then we go away.
- [00:31:37.199]And the next spring, when the birds come back,
- [00:31:40.145]they are looking for purple martins with geolocators.
- [00:31:43.058]And it's their job to spot them, take the geolocator off,
- [00:31:46.664]and send it to me in the mail so we can analyze it.
- [00:31:49.923]And they describe it as looking for a grain of rice
- [00:31:52.255]on a bird's back.
- [00:31:53.982]This is the geolocator stalk sticking up
- [00:31:56.785]on the back of the purple martin that's popping out here.
- [00:32:03.143]So one of the other things we discovered in terms of
- [00:32:07.558]where they go on their wintering grounds
- [00:32:09.259]is that we had one collaborator from British Columbia
- [00:32:12.457]who wanted to put geolocators on,
- [00:32:14.452]and the birds on the west coast of Canada and the U.S.
- [00:32:17.821]are actually a different subspecies.
- [00:32:19.899]So, genetically speaking, they don't intermix or interbreed
- [00:32:23.745]with the eastern subspecies.
- [00:32:26.130]So these birds from British Columbia,
- [00:32:28.097]you'll notice marked in green,
- [00:32:29.949]do something completely different.
- [00:32:31.852]They do not go to the Amazon rainforest.
- [00:32:34.427]They keep going all the way down here
- [00:32:36.928]to the east coast of Brazil.
- [00:32:39.985]So even though these Alberta birds and Florida birds
- [00:32:42.498]are completely mixing up at the subspecies level,
- [00:32:47.590]between subspecies they have
- [00:32:49.021]completely different wintering grounds.
- [00:32:51.484]And the reason this is important is it tells us the genetics
- [00:32:54.815]underlying some of this migration behavior.
- [00:32:58.388]These birds are pre-programmed to go to their destination.
- [00:33:01.699]The babies do not hatch out of the nest
- [00:33:03.597]and follow their parents to the wintering grounds.
- [00:33:06.519]It's in their DNA.
- [00:33:07.716]They already know what routes to take
- [00:33:09.657]and how to get there and where to go.
- [00:33:12.192]And so when you're looking
- [00:33:13.087]at these two different subspecies,
- [00:33:15.673]the west coast ones have evolved a different destination
- [00:33:18.995]than the east ones.
- [00:33:20.710]So it's amazing, again, when you think about
- [00:33:22.612]the level of the individual bird
- [00:33:24.809]and how they're making these journeys.
- [00:33:26.892]Not only do they have the machinery to fly fast
- [00:33:29.734]and to navigate and orient, but somehow that destination
- [00:33:33.546]is already imprinted in their mind at birth.
- [00:33:39.310]I just want to show you briefly a video
- [00:33:41.417]that kind of captures the flow of migration.
- [00:33:44.054]Again, we've never really been able to do this before
- [00:33:46.578]for songbirds at the individual level.
- [00:33:50.202]What this is gonna show you is the movements week by week
- [00:33:53.406]of all 200 purple martins that we tracked.
- [00:33:57.313]And what you'll see is the birds
- [00:33:58.547]that we tracked from Florida and Texas
- [00:34:01.225]begin their journey first.
- [00:34:02.785]They start breeding early in February and March,
- [00:34:05.456]and they're finished by July.
- [00:34:08.026]The birds from the northern populations
- [00:34:10.698]start breeding late, so our Pennsylvania birds
- [00:34:13.372]won't be laying eggs until early May, late May.
- [00:34:17.727]The ones in Alberta are even later.
- [00:34:19.985]And so this flow of migration
- [00:34:21.618]is not just like individual birds,
- [00:34:23.307]it's also staggered according to where they breed.
- [00:34:27.047]So, anyway, we'll get this started here.
- [00:34:30.860]And I'll pause it from time to time.
- [00:34:32.357]So what you're seeing here,
- [00:34:33.351]these are basically our study sites that you can see here.
- [00:34:36.871]And these first few birds that are heading to Brazil,
- [00:34:39.854]this would be in July.
- [00:34:41.708]These are the Florida birds and Texas birds
- [00:34:44.092]that are going first.
- [00:34:46.652]And keep an eye out for these migratory bottlenecks
- [00:34:49.486]that we've been talking about with wood thrushes.
- [00:34:51.692]As you get more and more birds on the move,
- [00:34:54.002]western Cuba and the Yucatan show up
- [00:34:57.466]as really important bottlenecks for purple martins.
- [00:35:01.178]And you can see how the birds flow down through here.
- [00:35:03.394]These regions right here, it's critical to have
- [00:35:06.146]stopover habitat for purple martins along their way.
- [00:35:09.725]The entire population of eastern North America
- [00:35:13.670]basically comes down here the same way.
- [00:35:17.707]Same, the Amazon rainforest, the birds depend
- [00:35:21.258]on that area entirely for their wintering grounds.
- [00:35:24.423]And you can see here, almost all of them
- [00:35:25.858]are up here along the Amazon.
- [00:35:27.778]There's just a handful, proportional-wise,
- [00:35:30.802]of purple martins that go down here to southern Brazil.
- [00:35:34.668]Sort of like an hourglass emptying out,
- [00:35:37.561]and, as if by magic anti-gravity,
- [00:35:40.097]it refills back again in the spring.
- [00:35:43.096]Here are the Florida birds coming back.
- [00:35:46.828]Some of the Texas birds.
- [00:35:48.472]And it fills from bottom to top right in the spring
- [00:35:51.512]as they settle in.
- [00:35:58.278]The northern birds of course are the last ones
- [00:36:00.448]to come back and start breeding.
- [00:36:11.659]So, we've identified the Amazon rainforest of Brazil
- [00:36:16.564]as the core wintering areas for these purple martins,
- [00:36:19.727]at least the ones from the eastern subspecies.
- [00:36:22.454]And now what we really want to do is
- [00:36:24.382]identify these critical stopover sites
- [00:36:26.863]that they depend on.
- [00:36:27.715]We know regionally where they are.
- [00:36:29.672]But we want to know exactly, pinpoint where they are.
- [00:36:33.059]And there's a number of methods
- [00:36:34.227]to do this for purple martins.
- [00:36:35.765]They have this habit in the fall of gathering
- [00:36:37.694]in these massive roosts of tens or hundreds of thousands
- [00:36:40.830]of birds in one location.
- [00:36:43.216]And so at least on the breeding grounds,
- [00:36:45.133]people know where they are just by observing them.
- [00:36:47.277]So in Erie, Pennsylvania, there's a pre-migratory roost
- [00:36:50.255]just north of Erie in a little marsh.
- [00:36:52.585]And it's been there for 30 or 40 years.
- [00:36:54.747]It's a traditional site.
- [00:36:56.284]The purple martins always come there in August every year.
- [00:36:59.381]And the numbers grow to massive numbers
- [00:37:01.278]and then dwindle down in September.
- [00:37:04.167]Another well-known roost is Mann's Harbor, North Carolina.
- [00:37:06.831]It's actually on a bridge.
- [00:37:08.920]Not an island, but sort of an island.
- [00:37:10.761]It's a bridge, and, again, the martins gather there
- [00:37:13.248]by the tens of thousands.
- [00:37:16.378]We can also locate these roost sites using weather radar.
- [00:37:19.174]There's so many birds sleeping there at night
- [00:37:21.217]that in the morning, when they leave
- [00:37:22.806]and fly away from the roost, it creates
- [00:37:25.192]kind of an expanding doughnut shape on the weather radar.
- [00:37:28.984]So the Purple Martin Conservation Association's been
- [00:37:31.473]mapping out roost sites just sitting
- [00:37:34.009]in front of their computers looking for those radar images.
- [00:37:37.610]You still need to send someone on the ground
- [00:37:39.498]to narrow down exactly where it is,
- [00:37:41.775]but you can have a pretty good idea
- [00:37:43.459]of where these sites are.
- [00:37:46.050]What we want to do on the wintering grounds, though,
- [00:37:47.970]is identify, and on the stopover sites,
- [00:37:49.972]identify where these stopover sites
- [00:37:52.863]in Belize, in Honduras, Nicaragua, Brazil.
- [00:37:57.063]Well, we don't have weather radar there.
- [00:37:59.455]They don't have a NEXRAD weather radar system
- [00:38:01.988]set up in those countries.
- [00:38:03.165]You can't go online and check the radar.
- [00:38:06.081]So we have to go back to our tracking technology.
- [00:38:08.873]And they've developed new tracking devices now
- [00:38:10.885]that actually give you GPS-quality locations.
- [00:38:15.131]So, instead of worrying about sunrise and sunset
- [00:38:17.722]and rainfall, and not quite sure where the bird is,
- [00:38:20.325]these give you exact locations.
- [00:38:23.598]The catch is, the bird has to come back with its tag
- [00:38:26.938]for you to be able to get the data.
- [00:38:29.733]The other one is that the battery life doesn't allow you
- [00:38:32.586]to get daily locations.
- [00:38:34.807]You pre-program your tag to turn on
- [00:38:38.294]at a particular time and a particular date.
- [00:38:40.820]It turns on, talks to the satellite, gets a location,
- [00:38:44.299]and then goes back to sleep again
- [00:38:46.015]until you've told it to turn on again.
- [00:38:47.683]So you can really only get 10 locations a year.
- [00:38:50.548]Now that was when we started doing this a couple years ago.
- [00:38:53.260]It's improved a little bit now,
- [00:38:54.835]but still it's not live tracking.
- [00:38:56.687]But it's better than what we had before.
- [00:38:59.438]So here's an example of the kind of detail
- [00:39:01.743]that we can get from the GPS devices.
- [00:39:05.250]So if we were tracking with a geolocator,
- [00:39:07.725]we would know that the bird stopped somewhere
- [00:39:09.900]here on the east coast of Belize,
- [00:39:11.806]but there's no way you could actually go on the ground
- [00:39:14.507]and find out exactly where that site was.
- [00:39:18.283]But it turns out that this bird had a GPS tag,
- [00:39:21.334]not a geolocator,
- [00:39:22.945]so we know that the migratory stop site,
- [00:39:25.270]this tiny island here off the coast of Belize City.
- [00:39:29.052]So we can pinpoint.
- [00:39:30.771]And, again, the thing is it's an island.
- [00:39:32.945]The stopover site was on an island.
- [00:39:35.414]Here's another example.
- [00:39:37.115]A lot of stopovers on eastern coast of Nicaragua.
- [00:39:40.891]We could see that in the migration flow map.
- [00:39:43.593]But where exactly?
- [00:39:44.720]If you wanted to do actually any conservation on the ground,
- [00:39:46.908]you have to know exactly where it is.
- [00:39:49.005]Again the GPS tag tells us it's a little island
- [00:39:52.058]in an estuary of a river.
- [00:39:53.992]And, in fact, in the very first year
- [00:39:55.657]of using these GPS tags, we found two birds
- [00:39:57.912]that stopped exactly at this same island.
- [00:40:01.770]One was from Texas.
- [00:40:03.173]The other one was from Florida.
- [00:40:05.251]Again, reinforcing that these birds
- [00:40:07.343]completely mix on migration.
- [00:40:09.234]And that if you protect one little island,
- [00:40:12.157]you might be saving purple martins
- [00:40:14.147]from across their breeding range.
- [00:40:16.810]We can do the same things on the wintering grounds.
- [00:40:19.204]Again, here's a very popular winter,
- [00:40:21.682]we get a lot of birds mapping into this area here.
- [00:40:24.047]Manaus is right there.
- [00:40:25.461]This is the Rio Negro.
- [00:40:27.064]So we know that there are important roost sites
- [00:40:29.307]near Manaus, but where exactly?
- [00:40:32.138]In order to conserve them, we have to know where they are.
- [00:40:34.857]Well, again, tiny little island in the middle of a lake.
- [00:40:38.384]Why islands?
- [00:40:39.262]Well, protection, right?
- [00:40:41.327]So, even though we can look
- [00:40:42.869]at the northern Amazon rainforest and say,
- [00:40:45.356]"Well, it's largely intact.
- [00:40:47.487]"Hasn't all been cut down yet."
- [00:40:50.069]There still may be important conservation actions
- [00:40:52.411]we have to take, because it's not an endless,
- [00:40:55.120]limitless resource for purple martins.
- [00:40:57.821]They have very specific roost sites
- [00:40:59.774]that they depend on.
- [00:41:01.802]And if those roost sites are damaged or destroyed,
- [00:41:04.609]we don't know what is gonna happen to the birds.
- [00:41:08.682]And finally, in the last couple minutes I have left,
- [00:41:10.689]I just want to talk briefly about climate change,
- [00:41:12.749]'cause that question often comes up.
- [00:41:14.201]It did this morning at our event.
- [00:41:17.616]We can use this migration tracking to give us
- [00:41:19.682]some insights on whether or not birds
- [00:41:22.444]like the purple martin, long-distance migrants,
- [00:41:24.876]whether they can adapt quickly to climate change.
- [00:41:29.878]So, 2012 was the warmest spring on record
- [00:41:33.237]in the U.S. and in Canada.
- [00:41:35.551]We're probably gonna break that record pretty soon.
- [00:41:37.759]But, as of 2012, that was the warmest one on record
- [00:41:41.424]since we've been collecting temperature records.
- [00:41:44.166]And we had been tracking purple martins since 2007.
- [00:41:47.326]I thought, "Wow, what a great opportunity."
- [00:41:49.314]Sort of Mother Nature's experiment.
- [00:41:51.395]We have an unusual year.
- [00:41:53.510]Let's see if our purple martins could detect
- [00:41:56.358]that something unusual was happening that year.
- [00:41:59.286]Did they leave Brazil earlier?
- [00:42:01.630]Did they fly faster?
- [00:42:03.024]Did they get back to their breeding colonies earlier?
- [00:42:05.618]How well could these individual birds cope
- [00:42:08.673]with this massive sudden change in the environment?
- [00:42:13.345]So this shows the migration routes.
- [00:42:15.478]In red is the 2012 and in blue is normal years.
- [00:42:19.275]And because we know the migration routes,
- [00:42:21.998]we can actually go and look up the temperature records
- [00:42:24.338]in the places where those birds were,
- [00:42:26.777]and say, "Was there a difference in temperature
- [00:42:29.426]"at these different places along the route?"
- [00:42:31.813]And really not all that surprising in retrospect,
- [00:42:34.546]if you go to Manaus, Brazil
- [00:42:36.646]and measure temperatures in a normal year versus 2012,
- [00:42:41.122]you'll find that the temperatures were the same.
- [00:42:43.307]It wasn't the warmest year on record in Brazil.
- [00:42:46.244]It wasn't the warmest year on record in Panama.
- [00:42:48.487]And it wasn't the warmest year on record in Merida, Yucatan.
- [00:42:52.516]So from a purple martin's point of view,
- [00:42:54.364]because they're long-distance migrants,
- [00:42:56.007]they're not experiencing this climate change
- [00:42:59.488]the same way the food resources at their breeding sites are.
- [00:43:03.204]So, yes, spring came far earlier in 2012.
- [00:43:06.728]The insects hatched out far earlier.
- [00:43:08.633]The trees leafed out far earlier.
- [00:43:11.063]But the purple martins are kind of left in the dark.
- [00:43:14.203]It's not until they arrive at the U.S. Gulf Coast
- [00:43:17.709]that there's any detectable difference in temperature
- [00:43:20.374]from the bird's point of view.
- [00:43:22.455]By the time they hit the U.S. Gulf Coast,
- [00:43:24.685]they're only three days away from home.
- [00:43:27.159]They can't suddenly speed up and get here faster.
- [00:43:30.909]So these long-distance migrants cannot easily adapt
- [00:43:34.242]to climate change on a year-to-year basis,
- [00:43:36.613]because the whole schedule of when to leave Brazil
- [00:43:41.181]is kind of genetically programmed
- [00:43:43.933]based on what has been successful
- [00:43:46.719]over hundreds if not thousands of years.
- [00:43:52.171]So this geolocator tracking that I've described
- [00:43:54.415]for wood thrushes and for purple martins
- [00:43:56.272]has been a real exciting time for people
- [00:43:58.301]who study migratory birds.
- [00:44:00.299]Dozens of researchers around the world
- [00:44:02.044]have now started tracking birds
- [00:44:03.640]and different migration systems.
- [00:44:05.221]I've been talking about North American migration,
- [00:44:08.395]but we have other birds around the world
- [00:44:09.906]that migrate from Europe to Southern Africa
- [00:44:12.920]and do really spectacular journeys.
- [00:44:15.537]And, in all these cases, the goal of the research
- [00:44:18.505]is similar to what I've described this afternoon.
- [00:44:21.248]We marvel at the feat and talents
- [00:44:23.587]of these amazing little birds
- [00:44:25.365]that can fly such long distances
- [00:44:27.478]and make maps and look at the details of timing and routes,
- [00:44:30.841]but almost exclusively all the birds that are being studied
- [00:44:34.496]are at conservation risk.
- [00:44:36.233]They're declining species.
- [00:44:37.807]And we all hope that we can discover something
- [00:44:40.108]about their migration that we can help solve the puzzle
- [00:44:42.724]of why they're declining and stop it before it's too late.
- [00:44:46.669]Thank you, and I'll stop now and take some questions.
- [00:44:49.500](audience applauds)
- [00:44:56.300]Ok, questions for Bridget?
- [00:44:58.437]EJ will come around with a microphone
- [00:45:00.643]so everyone can hear your question.
- [00:45:02.902]And while he's getting started,
- [00:45:04.429]I'm gonna send a clipboard around the room
- [00:45:07.272]if anyone is interested in joining the community
- [00:45:09.954]about The Messenger movie.
- [00:45:12.435]So pass this around and sign up as we go.
- [00:45:15.875]So, questions, EJ will come with the microphone.
- [00:45:23.532]Or not.
- [00:45:29.051]Ok. I have a question.
- [00:45:32.233]The purple martins that show up in Texas and Louisiana
- [00:45:35.407]in February, are those western subspecies
- [00:45:39.398]or eastern subspecies?
- [00:45:41.130]Those are the eastern subspecies.
- [00:45:42.857]They're breeding in Florida and Texas,
- [00:45:45.376]and because they're so far south,
- [00:45:47.684]they start breeding in February, March,
- [00:45:49.595]and they're finished by July
- [00:45:51.476]and begin migration in July.
- [00:45:53.099]So the whole sort of calendar
- [00:45:54.641]of when a bird leaves and begins on migration
- [00:45:57.741]and when it gets back depends entirely
- [00:45:59.807]on breeding latitude.
- [00:46:01.645]So, again, that's sort of a genetic thing
- [00:46:03.280]that young birds don't need to be taught
- [00:46:05.572]when to start migrating.
- [00:46:07.761]It's built in.
- [00:46:09.104]Ok.
- [00:46:15.424]Yes, I was wondering, do you see
- [00:46:16.600]any connection between the diminishing of one breed
- [00:46:21.123]or one type of bird in an area, how that relates
- [00:46:24.465]to the possible increase or decrease of another bird,
- [00:46:27.408]maybe migrating in the same area?
- [00:46:29.375]Is there any interconnectivity to that?
- [00:46:33.140]Yeah, it's possible that different species
- [00:46:35.262]are actually competing for the same resources.
- [00:46:37.364]We actually don't know a lot about that
- [00:46:39.380]in the sense of just how limiting insect supply is,
- [00:46:43.827]for instance, for different species.
- [00:46:45.417]The general thought is that different types of birds
- [00:46:48.121]forage and specialize on different kinds of food.
- [00:46:51.061]So, like a wood thrush is a frugivore,
- [00:46:53.735]and on migration it probably eats an awful lot of fruit.
- [00:46:57.086]A purple martin is an aerial insectivore
- [00:46:59.075]and eats only flying insects.
- [00:47:01.595]Some warblers specialize by digging around
- [00:47:05.198]inside dead leaves and pulling the insects out
- [00:47:07.680]from inside the dead leaves.
- [00:47:09.386]And so even though you get many, many different species
- [00:47:11.437]occupying the same forest on a stopover,
- [00:47:15.640]because they feed in different styles and have different
- [00:47:18.196]types of beaks and beak shapes, to some extent
- [00:47:21.370]that can alleviate some of the competition for food,
- [00:47:23.920]which otherwise would exist.
- [00:47:25.572]But it is quite likely,
- [00:47:26.884]especially in the really small stopover sites,
- [00:47:30.124]that there isn't enough food for all the birds
- [00:47:32.046]who stop there.
- [00:47:36.997]Yes, I have a several part question here.
- [00:47:40.058]I assume that the birds
- [00:47:41.595]that you're putting the tracking devices on are also banded.
- [00:47:44.966]Yes.
- [00:47:46.073]And have you been able to re-equip
- [00:47:49.729]the same bird with another tracking device,
- [00:47:52.645]or do you use another bird, and also,
- [00:47:56.260]have you been able to recapture a number of banded birds
- [00:48:00.000]to show how many successful migrants
- [00:48:03.103]that you've had and how many years?
- [00:48:06.381]Yeah, of course a concern anytime you start asking birds
- [00:48:10.418]to have carry-on luggage that it might slow them down
- [00:48:14.366]or alter their migration routes,
- [00:48:16.932]or, worst case scenario, be such a burden
- [00:48:20.263]that they're not able to finish the migration.
- [00:48:24.749]We were the first to start using these tracking devices
- [00:48:27.716]in songbirds, and it's not a coincidence
- [00:48:29.749]that we started with purple martins and wood thrushes,
- [00:48:31.901]because they're relatively large.
- [00:48:34.243]Meaning that they can carry the load more easily.
- [00:48:37.282]But we did do those studies on both species.
- [00:48:39.256]We had birds that we just banded
- [00:48:41.434]and other ones that we banded and tracked.
- [00:48:44.399]And so you can compare the return rates of the two groups
- [00:48:46.950]to give you a feel for whether your return rates
- [00:48:50.248]are unusually low for the tracked ones.
- [00:48:53.280]And it is true the very first year
- [00:48:54.836]that we tracked purple martins,
- [00:48:57.347]we didn't get very many back.
- [00:48:59.467]And at that time, the light stalk that we were using
- [00:49:02.088]was as long as the wood thrush one.
- [00:49:04.829]So when we had that low return rate,
- [00:49:06.524]just in our pilot year, we thought we better shorten
- [00:49:09.185]the stalk down to the size of a grain of rice.
- [00:49:11.804]And when we did that, the return rates
- [00:49:13.448]came back perfectly normal.
- [00:49:16.017]You've asked whether we've tracked birds
- [00:49:18.050]several years in a row.
- [00:49:19.732]Most often we avoid that,
- [00:49:21.614]because we don't want to bias our data
- [00:49:26.441]by having the same bird over and over again in the data set.
- [00:49:30.973]But we are very interested in how variable a bird is
- [00:49:34.730]from year to year.
- [00:49:36.393]So, for a subset of our geolocators, we deliberately
- [00:49:39.832]tracked the same bird a second year in a row.
- [00:49:43.391]For instance, the wood thrush that I showed you
- [00:49:45.261]that came back around the Gulf of Mexico,
- [00:49:47.834]the next year she came straight across,
- [00:49:50.256]going to show that whatever happened that first year
- [00:49:53.471]was not happening the second year.
- [00:49:55.524]And a wood thrush is, one of the questions
- [00:49:57.193]we answered by tracking birds two years in a row
- [00:49:59.367]was regarding climate change, sort of,
- [00:50:02.278]around timing of migration and how consistent it is.
- [00:50:05.993]And what we found was that birds are, well,
- [00:50:09.346]kind of like airplanes that you can predict
- [00:50:12.603]the arrival date by the departure date.
- [00:50:15.930]Meaning that wood thrushes that come back early
- [00:50:19.703]are the ones that left early.
- [00:50:22.328]Wood thrushes that come back a few weeks later
- [00:50:24.789]are the ones that left a few weeks later.
- [00:50:27.498]So you have early birds and late birds.
- [00:50:30.470]And if you track an early bird, they're early every year.
- [00:50:33.843]And if you track a late bird, they're late every year.
- [00:50:36.130]Suggesting, again, that an individual bird,
- [00:50:39.550]with wood thrushes, they leave Central America
- [00:50:43.714]within about three days from year to year,
- [00:50:46.616]which is really precise.
- [00:50:47.603]It's almost as though there's an alarm bell, a clock
- [00:50:49.973]that goes off and it's time to go.
- [00:50:52.464]So that was really interesting.
- [00:50:54.011]It's hard to track birds two years in a row,
- [00:50:56.215]because a lot of them just die naturally.
- [00:50:58.642]It's hard to get a good enough sample size,
- [00:51:00.331]but that worked out really well.
- [00:51:08.236]In Omaha, at the Med Center,
- [00:51:10.688]there's been a group of people that go every night
- [00:51:14.683]to watch thousands of martins.
- [00:51:18.095]Are you aware of that?
- [00:51:20.296]I don't know that particular site,
- [00:51:21.886]but I bet you that if I looked back in our database
- [00:51:24.698]I would find some of our birds using that particular roost.
- [00:51:29.941]Most of the, like our birds from Pennsylvania,
- [00:51:33.229]when they leave, they fly really quickly
- [00:51:37.021]down to the U.S. Gulf Coast, as I noted.
- [00:51:39.744]But our birds that we've tracked from the farther west,
- [00:51:42.541]North Dakota and Alberta, they tend to fly
- [00:51:45.769]kind of east and south really quickly,
- [00:51:48.998]and then they'll stop and have a two- or three-week rest.
- [00:51:51.941]And then they'll continue on their journey.
- [00:51:53.341]And so the western birds seem to have
- [00:51:54.925]these long stopover sites that are probably like
- [00:51:58.396]what you're describing.
- [00:51:59.488]Right. It's a couple of weeks
- [00:52:00.841]Yeah, they can stick around where you can
- [00:52:01.894]a couple of weeks. see them coming
- [00:52:02.647]back every night.
- [00:52:04.061]In Pennsylvania we know that our roost is comprised
- [00:52:06.451]mostly of breeding birds rather than migrating birds,
- [00:52:09.818]'cause they line up on the wires,
- [00:52:12.325]and we can actually go with a telescope
- [00:52:13.968]and read the leg bands of the birds
- [00:52:16.398]that we know were breeding.
- [00:52:17.899]And so, even the kids, you band all the kids,
- [00:52:19.955]and then you go look at the wires,
- [00:52:21.401]and you can pick out the birds
- [00:52:23.229]that came from our nest boxes there.
- [00:52:26.134]Yeah, but these roost sites are really important.
- [00:52:28.066]Some of them are under bridges,
- [00:52:30.601]and the problem is that the birds
- [00:52:31.904]kind of swirl around the road
- [00:52:33.935]while they're getting ready to actually go under the bridge,
- [00:52:36.975]and unless there's fencing along the side of the bridge
- [00:52:39.538]to keep the birds safe, thousands can be killed every year.
- [00:52:43.087]And so the Purple Martin Conservation Association
- [00:52:45.895]is actively working at these sites
- [00:52:47.838]to buy and put up fencing
- [00:52:50.687]so that the birds can continue using those sites
- [00:52:53.260]without getting hit by cars.
- [00:52:58.158]You mentioned that purple martins
- [00:53:01.174]don't migrate with their parents,
- [00:53:03.293]and I was wondering if you could just explain
- [00:53:05.507]a little bit more about how you know that.
- [00:53:09.551]Yeah, well we know that when you see groups flying,
- [00:53:13.276]for certain you can see individual purple martins
- [00:53:17.047]apparently on migration completely by themselves.
- [00:53:20.139]And certainly with other songbirds,
- [00:53:21.767]we know that the timing of departure on migration
- [00:53:24.577]differs between young and older birds.
- [00:53:27.275]And so we really have no evidence
- [00:53:28.503]that they travel in family groups at all.
- [00:53:31.374]With purple martins we just published a paper
- [00:53:33.386]earlier this year, looking at
- [00:53:34.621]the slightly different question of whether
- [00:53:36.988]a male and female that were mated together
- [00:53:39.706]and raised a family together,
- [00:53:41.191]whether they migrate together at the end of the summer.
- [00:53:44.007]'Cause I often get that question
- [00:53:45.415]of whether the males and females
- [00:53:47.599]kind of travel together on migration.
- [00:53:49.497]And we had tracked enough pairs to be able to show,
- [00:53:51.951]no, after the breeding season is over,
- [00:53:54.633]it's like, that's it. You're done.
- [00:53:56.517]So they really have nothing to do with each other
- [00:53:58.499]the rest of the year.
- [00:54:00.620]Second part to that question real quick.
- [00:54:02.253]Do you think that the juveniles
- [00:54:03.985]can just follow these large colonies along
- [00:54:06.854]and that maybe that's helping them figure out
- [00:54:09.084]where the quote, unquote good roost sites are?
- [00:54:11.805]Yes, certainly in terms of finding roost sites,
- [00:54:13.639]that's highly social.
- [00:54:15.066]So the location of the roost sites
- [00:54:16.822]I don't think are genetically programmed.
- [00:54:19.032]I think it's been well shown that timing of migration
- [00:54:22.445]and sort of general route is genetically programmed.
- [00:54:26.117]But the actual location of this island,
- [00:54:28.534]and the birds that are gonna roost there,
- [00:54:30.869]I think birds discover that.
- [00:54:32.494]At the end of the day, they can see,
- [00:54:34.186]these birds come streaming in from miles and miles away
- [00:54:37.714]all towards the same point.
- [00:54:40.173]And I think an individual bird in a particular region
- [00:54:42.744]does follow other ones.
- [00:54:44.105]And that's why these roost sites are traditional.
- [00:54:45.984]The one in Erie has been there for at least 40 years
- [00:54:48.425]in exactly the same patch over and over again.
- [00:54:51.176]And there's other habitat nearby.
- [00:54:53.069]There's no real reason that they have to use that.
- [00:54:55.213]It's just that the older birds will go there,
- [00:54:58.203]and new birds will follow them.
- [00:55:00.031]And so that tradition just keeps going
- [00:55:02.692]through that social kind of learning mechanism.
- [00:55:06.828]There's a question down at the front here.
- [00:55:11.555]You mentioned that the tracker devices
- [00:55:14.027]are expensive, so my first question is,
- [00:55:16.982]how much are they?
- [00:55:18.208]$200 each.
- [00:55:20.326]Ok. When the bird returns
- [00:55:22.618]and you take the tracker off,
- [00:55:25.425]are these recyclable or are they disposable?
- [00:55:28.579]The geolocators, you cannot reuse them.
- [00:55:31.337]I don't know why, but you can't reuse them.
- [00:55:33.397]And so, again, in our tracking studies with purple martins,
- [00:55:38.389]on average we get 30 to 40% of them back,
- [00:55:42.374]because the natural mortality is about,
- [00:55:44.144]half your birds die every year.
- [00:55:45.633]So if you want to get data on 20 birds,
- [00:55:48.107]you have to put out 50 geolocators,
- [00:55:50.697]which is $10,000 of equipment.
- [00:56:01.653]I'm a geographer,
- [00:56:03.167]and one of the things I recall is
- [00:56:04.756]that North America and South America
- [00:56:07.230]have not been connected very long.
- [00:56:09.318]As I recall, it's only about 4 million years,
- [00:56:11.506]something like that, which leads to a question
- [00:56:15.551]about whether purple martins emerged,
- [00:56:19.013]which hemisphere did they emerge in?
- [00:56:21.656]And to me as a human geographer,
- [00:56:24.196]that seems like a pretty rapid adjustment
- [00:56:27.811]to significant changes in where continents were located,
- [00:56:31.552]to migrate across Central America
- [00:56:34.914]between the two hemispheres.
- [00:56:37.216]That's a good question.
- [00:56:38.326]When did migration first evolve,
- [00:56:40.585]and how quickly can it change in response
- [00:56:42.831]to changes in the environment?
- [00:56:45.405]Birds are a very ancient group of organisms.
- [00:56:48.075]They used to hang out with the dinosaurs
- [00:56:49.810]back 50, 80, 100 million years ago,
- [00:56:53.432]so they're much older than primates, for instance.
- [00:56:58.698]Birds that could fly exceptionally well,
- [00:57:00.479]at least based on their anatomy,
- [00:57:01.956]go back tens of millions of years.
- [00:57:04.734]And so we suspect that migration is a very ancient behavior.
- [00:57:08.304]And when we look even at modern-day birds,
- [00:57:10.553]there are lots of examples just in the last 50 or 100 years
- [00:57:13.819]of populations that have lost their migratory urge,
- [00:57:17.140]because they live in cities
- [00:57:18.022]and they don't need to migrate anymore.
- [00:57:19.989]Examples of populations that have actually
- [00:57:22.392]shifted the destination, so over a period of 40 or 50 years,
- [00:57:26.949]instead of going to one place, they shift,
- [00:57:28.854]and they go to a different place.
- [00:57:30.869]So we think that this, you know,
- [00:57:32.506]birds are amazing at flying,
- [00:57:34.283]and we think that this migration behavior
- [00:57:36.110]is something that over decades can shift fairly easily.
- [00:57:41.769]With respect to climate change,
- [00:57:44.485]I'm sure that purple martins eventually, given some time,
- [00:57:47.717]will be able to adjust the timing of their migration
- [00:57:50.772]in response to long-term changes in our climate.
- [00:57:55.385]It's just that climate change is happening so rapidly
- [00:57:58.836]that it's possible that sort of a mismatch in timing
- [00:58:01.316]between when they arrive and when the food is available
- [00:58:04.236]is creating some of this declines in northern populations
- [00:58:07.652]that we've seen.
- [00:58:09.166]I think purple martins probably can adapt eventually,
- [00:58:12.424]given 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years.
- [00:58:15.177]I expect if somebody were to repeat this sort of study,
- [00:58:18.430]they would find that the timing of migration's
- [00:58:20.786]quite a bit different than it is now.
- [00:58:22.892]It's just that in terms of responding to climate change,
- [00:58:25.609]yes it's possible.
- [00:58:26.822]It's just gonna take a long time.
- [00:58:33.385]I was curious to know,
- [00:58:34.860]in conjunction with climate change, whether there's any data
- [00:58:40.163]regarding these catastrophic weather events
- [00:58:42.939]that we've experienced across North America
- [00:58:45.608]in just recent months, might be contributing
- [00:58:50.379]to dispersal or reduction in numbers.
- [00:58:54.780]Yeah, geolocators have been really fabulous
- [00:58:58.474]in teaching us so many new things and important things
- [00:59:01.065]about migratory birds.
- [00:59:02.449]But the one question, one most important question,
- [00:59:06.823]about conservation really is, where do birds die?
- [00:59:10.988]And geolocators can't give you the answer,
- [00:59:13.091]because you can only get data
- [00:59:14.450]from birds that come back successfully.
- [00:59:17.616]So there's a new tracking system that's being developed
- [00:59:21.734]that will be using the International Space Station
- [00:59:25.096]and allow live tracking of small songbirds,
- [00:59:29.988]where you can get four or five,
- [00:59:31.719]sometimes 10 positions a day on your bird.
- [00:59:35.021]And for the first time ever, when that comes online
- [00:59:37.199]in three or four years, for the first time ever
- [00:59:39.674]we can link
- [00:59:42.935]major storms to bird mortality.
- [00:59:46.379]For instance, if we have a big hurricane
- [00:59:48.692]in the Gulf of Mexico, I would have no idea
- [00:59:50.631]how many of our birds died in that one event.
- [00:59:54.339]And so making that link, we really don't,
- [00:59:57.086]even though stopover sites, you say,
- [00:59:58.881]"Which is more important, southern Florida
- [01:00:01.529]"or the Mississippi River Delta in terms of survival?"
- [01:00:05.245]The geolocator data can only tell you
- [01:00:06.934]where the survivors are going, and they can't tell you
- [01:00:10.282]how many survive in one site or another.
- [01:00:13.455]So that's the new technology
- [01:00:15.121]that we're all anxiously waiting for, is to be able
- [01:00:17.296]to track our birds through the International Space Station,
- [01:00:19.861]which will be really cool.
- [01:00:22.487]I think on that note we should probably move on
- [01:00:24.499]to the next talk.
- [01:00:26.214]Ok, that's good.
- [01:00:27.420]So I'm gonna talk about
- [01:00:31.349]some of the behind the scenes,
- [01:00:33.003]about how me made it
- [01:00:34.415]and what we're doing with the film right now.
- [01:00:38.573]And I hope, if you haven't seen the trailer,
- [01:00:40.214]that you will go to the web site and have a look at it.
- [01:00:43.016]And hopefully you'll come see the whole film
- [01:00:46.120]at the Ross as well.
- [01:00:48.510]I'm really delighted to be here.
- [01:00:51.002]And our film is a Canada/France international co-production,
- [01:00:55.501]filmed on three continents.
- [01:00:57.838]And we're really excited we found
- [01:01:01.397]a French co-production partner,
- [01:01:03.038]which helped make the film possible, Films a Cinq.
- [01:01:06.237]We couldn't have done it on our own.
- [01:01:08.745]We did not have a U.S. partner when we made it.
- [01:01:11.678]We pitched it (laughs).
- [01:01:13.897]Making a documentary is a long process.
- [01:01:15.798]And we did pitch it to a couple of American broadcasters
- [01:01:19.962]that were sort of interested,
- [01:01:21.550]but we didn't come to terms on a deal.
- [01:01:24.143]So we've instead released this as a feature film
- [01:01:27.447]as opposed to a television documentary.
- [01:01:30.690]So the film's now playing in U.S. cinemas
- [01:01:34.186]and cinemas in Canada,
- [01:01:36.226]and it will have its UK debut the first week of May
- [01:01:40.597]at a UK Green Film Festival that tours around the UK.
- [01:01:48.102]When you start developing a film like this,
- [01:01:51.099]it's always about story.
- [01:01:55.338]Story comes first.
- [01:01:56.647]Documentaries can't be just about a topic,
- [01:02:00.095]because a topic can be boring.
- [01:02:03.112]And we don't want to bore people.
- [01:02:05.812]We want to engage an audience, and we want
- [01:02:08.057]to have it reveal an unfolding, interesting story.
- [01:02:10.720]If you think of dramas, think of Shakespeare,
- [01:02:14.499]his famous stage play Romeo and Juliet
- [01:02:16.628]had a really important message to convey.
- [01:02:21.216]But he didn't beat you over the head with it.
- [01:02:23.365]He entertained you with a touching and emotional love story
- [01:02:26.925]that's really heartbreaking.
- [01:02:28.955]And the audience feels the sense of helplessness
- [01:02:32.851]in a dramatic arc that keeps you engaged
- [01:02:37.049]up till the tragic ending.
- [01:02:38.999]And we hope that all good stories touch us that way,
- [01:02:42.016]changing our hearts and minds forever.
- [01:02:48.008]Instead of saying, "We made a film about birds,"
- [01:02:51.023]this is our little synopsis.
- [01:02:52.701]It's dramatic writing to let you know
- [01:02:55.754]that this is gonna be something interesting.
- [01:02:59.622]And when you think about the power of film,
- [01:03:04.413]it's different than reading a book.
- [01:03:06.983]It's different than having a lecture.
- [01:03:08.560]Film can be really engrossing,
- [01:03:11.384]and it can be an emotional journey.
- [01:03:13.582]And it can also make a difference,
- [01:03:16.469]and I ask you as the audience,
- [01:03:18.204]can you give me an example of some films
- [01:03:21.164]you think of, probably documentaries,
- [01:03:24.488]that have made a difference,
- [01:03:26.243]have brought an issue to the forefront?
- [01:03:29.395]Just shout it out if you have an example.
- [01:03:31.580]Yeah?
- [01:03:31.960]One's Spotlight.
- [01:03:33.150]Spotlight?
- [01:03:34.596]I don't know that film.
- [01:03:35.572]What's it about?
- [01:03:36.329](responds indistinctly)
- [01:03:39.029]Oh right, yes, I know that film.
- [01:03:40.721]I just haven't seen it yet. Yeah.
- [01:03:43.934]What about documentaries?
- [01:03:45.216]Can you think of any documentaries
- [01:03:46.524]that maybe brought an issue to the forefront
- [01:03:49.317]that we didn't know about?
- [01:03:51.472](audience member speaks indistinctly)
- [01:03:53.927]Oh is it? Ok.
- [01:03:55.402]Any others?
- [01:03:56.160]What about this one?
- [01:03:57.994]Has anybody heard of The Cove?
- [01:04:00.328]Yeah, The Cove was a 2009 Oscar-winning film,
- [01:04:04.979]and it helped raise the awareness
- [01:04:06.757]of the issues that dolphins face.
- [01:04:10.364]And since that film has been made,
- [01:04:12.046]there are now record-low dolphin deaths each year.
- [01:04:15.200]And in Japan, the demand for dolphin meat
- [01:04:18.177]has gone down by two thirds since that film was made.
- [01:04:21.321]What about this one?
- [01:04:24.266]Inconvenient Truth put the issue
- [01:04:28.196]of climate change on the table.
- [01:04:29.800]It was the first time that the general public
- [01:04:33.030]started to become aware of that issue.
- [01:04:37.479]And the recent climate change talks in Paris
- [01:04:40.274]may never have occurred if that film had not been made.
- [01:04:43.227]And the cooperation that's happening from around the world
- [01:04:46.883]might not have been achieved.
- [01:04:49.041]Has anybody heard of this one?
- [01:04:50.930]The End of the Line?
- [01:04:53.318]This was the first major feature documentary
- [01:04:56.686]to reveal the impact of over-fishing on the oceans.
- [01:05:00.667]And in the UK, this film was supported
- [01:05:04.368]by the World Wildlife Fund and, also,
- [01:05:07.697]the Waitrose supermarkets got on board.
- [01:05:11.395]And they switched to sustainable fish only.
- [01:05:15.198]And in the end, there was enough awareness
- [01:05:17.815]around the issues with that film
- [01:05:19.170]that sustainable fish sales actually went up 15%
- [01:05:23.052]in the UK just from that one film.
- [01:05:26.655]Another example would be Blackfish.
- [01:05:28.535]Some of you may have seen Blackfish
- [01:05:30.618]about the killer whale that was on CNN.
- [01:05:33.383]So The Messenger,
- [01:05:34.776]this is an independent documentary
- [01:05:38.476]started by three Canadian women,
- [01:05:40.443]myself, Su Rynard the director, and Diane Woods.
- [01:05:44.186]And we started on a journey to make this film.
- [01:05:46.865]And we found a story that not many people knew about.
- [01:05:50.661]And that gave us a mission.
- [01:05:53.195]And the inspiration for our film,
- [01:05:55.789]where did this come from?
- [01:05:57.579]Bridget Stutchbury's book, Silence of the Songbirds.
- [01:06:02.218]Excellent book.
- [01:06:03.201]The three of us read it in 2010,
- [01:06:05.929]and we thought this was a story
- [01:06:07.850]that not many people knew about.
- [01:06:09.575]And it was a story that we should tell.
- [01:06:12.800]But we're not bird experts.
- [01:06:15.795]We're producers and directors.
- [01:06:18.179]We all have a strong interest in the environment.
- [01:06:21.970]So we had these problems.
- [01:06:24.528]Songbirds are in serious decline.
- [01:06:27.772]If the birds are in trouble,
- [01:06:29.503]that may mean the planet's in trouble.
- [01:06:33.012]But a feature film has to be an experience.
- [01:06:37.399]We want to captivate people in the movie theaters.
- [01:06:40.109]And we deliberately did not use
- [01:06:43.588]a typical television narration format for this film,
- [01:06:47.963]because we felt that that is too dictatorial
- [01:06:52.173]in terms of what you're supposed to think.
- [01:06:54.038]We wanted people to come away from this film
- [01:06:57.137]feeling great empathy for the birds,
- [01:07:01.902]wondering about what's gonna happen in the future,
- [01:07:04.867]and make an emotional connection to the birds.
- [01:07:07.748]If you think about birds, birds have influenced our culture,
- [01:07:10.998]and our art, and our music for a long time.
- [01:07:14.385]And they're really important to our sense
- [01:07:19.406]of who we are on this planet.
- [01:07:23.040]So here's a little bit about the process.
- [01:07:26.116]It'll be six years this May
- [01:07:27.767]since we started working on this film.
- [01:07:30.845]But you have to develop the idea for the film.
- [01:07:33.760]You have to have the credibility in the research
- [01:07:35.818]that goes into making the film.
- [01:07:37.439]You have to do something that's innovative
- [01:07:40.570]in the way it's presented.
- [01:07:42.810]And you have to invest a lot of time and sweat equity
- [01:07:47.532]into developing a proposal
- [01:07:49.531]and a treatment to present the film.
- [01:07:52.907]So here was our timeline.
- [01:07:54.788]We worked for three years on developing the idea.
- [01:07:58.137]We had 15 months of production and filming.
- [01:08:01.123]We wanted to film over two spring migrations,
- [01:08:04.053]and because we were filming on three continents,
- [01:08:07.007]we had to time it all out.
- [01:08:09.653]We spent over a year in the edit suite.
- [01:08:12.477]We're in the distribution phase now
- [01:08:14.435]and building audience for the film.
- [01:08:19.125]So, in the early stage of the film,
- [01:08:22.259]we had to do a lot of fundraising.
- [01:08:25.990]And Director Su Rynard,
- [01:08:28.114]and this is our chief cinematographer, Daniel Grant,
- [01:08:31.902]they had to come up with some interesting ways
- [01:08:34.847]to present this film.
- [01:08:36.487]Songbirds are very hard to film.
- [01:08:38.317]Have any of you tried to photograph songbirds?
- [01:08:42.166]You know how quickly they fly away on you
- [01:08:44.649]and you don't get that shot?
- [01:08:46.318]Well, we had to find some cinematographers
- [01:08:49.606]who are really good at bird photography.
- [01:08:53.599]And one of our first investors,
- [01:08:55.727]CBC Nature of Things, hosted by David Suzuki,
- [01:08:58.910]who was one of the first people to commit to our film,
- [01:09:01.378]they were very concerned that we wouldn't
- [01:09:02.695]have enough footage of birds
- [01:09:04.152]to actually make the film interesting enough.
- [01:09:07.006]So we found a few experts, wildlife filming experts.
- [01:09:11.774]One was a guy named Laurent Charbonnier in France,
- [01:09:14.647]and he did a lot of our filming,
- [01:09:16.141]and turns out he was actually one of those cinematographers
- [01:09:19.028]on Winged Migration, which you may remember from,
- [01:09:22.382]I think it's about 20 years old now, that film.
- [01:09:25.804]The other one, we found a guy in West Virginia
- [01:09:28.967]who had worked on Planet Earth.
- [01:09:31.199]And he also does his own bird videography.
- [01:09:35.147]And then we found a young field biologist in Canada,
- [01:09:38.470]who was just really good at filming birds.
- [01:09:40.822]And he also does acoustic monitoring
- [01:09:44.576]for one of the scientists that's in the film.
- [01:09:47.692]And he was willing to stay out in the forest for two months
- [01:09:52.526]and just film birds and find nests and figure out
- [01:09:55.703]where to get shots for us.
- [01:09:58.185]But filming birds in migration is again
- [01:10:01.139]another whole matter,
- [01:10:02.539]because they fly at night high in the sky.
- [01:10:06.782]You need light to film.
- [01:10:09.232]I mean, some birds migrate in the daytime too,
- [01:10:11.385]but we were very interested in these migrants
- [01:10:14.844]that were flying at night.
- [01:10:17.298]So in our process of our research,
- [01:10:20.009]we called it "making the invisible visible".
- [01:10:22.891]How were we gonna do that with this almost impossible task
- [01:10:26.566]of filming songbirds in flight?
- [01:10:29.310]And here you can see Bridget with the camera crew,
- [01:10:31.926]and a bird in the hand is very easy to film.
- [01:10:35.643]A bird in a tree, little bit harder, but you can get it.
- [01:10:39.138]So we found that at Western University in London, Ontario,
- [01:10:42.928]there's a wind tunnel.
- [01:10:44.456]And they were doing some migration research
- [01:10:47.013]at this wind tunnel.
- [01:10:48.594]And Dr. Chris Guglielmo, who you see there,
- [01:10:52.349]he was researching physiology aspects
- [01:10:55.592]of birds during migration.
- [01:10:57.791]And they were bringing a small number
- [01:10:59.401]of birds into captivity,
- [01:11:01.788]and they were doing research around how much fuel
- [01:11:06.791]would they eat and then how much would they burn
- [01:11:09.635]during a migration time.
- [01:11:12.262]And they would put them in the wind tunnel
- [01:11:13.640]and see how long they would fly.
- [01:11:15.425]And 14 hours later,
- [01:11:16.888]the bird would be out of the wind tunnel.
- [01:11:19.893]They would weigh and measure it
- [01:11:20.960]to see how much fuel it had burnt off
- [01:11:24.988]and whether it had lost weight, that sort of thing.
- [01:11:27.513]We found this really interesting,
- [01:11:28.921]but Su being the visual person that she is,
- [01:11:33.546]she said, "Could we film in that wind tunnel?"
- [01:11:36.402]And here she is right inside the wind tunnel
- [01:11:39.016]taping up the metal pieces with black tape
- [01:11:42.623]so that we could do some test filming.
- [01:11:46.069]And this was in 2011.
- [01:11:49.397]This is one of the shots of the yellow-rumped warbler
- [01:11:52.327]that they had.
- [01:11:54.033]They had in captivity at that time
- [01:11:55.928]yellow-rumpeds and Swainson's thrush.
- [01:11:59.160]And these are stills from the video
- [01:12:01.352]that we shot that first year.
- [01:12:04.680]We got some really amazing footage.
- [01:12:07.249]This is a technician that worked with us
- [01:12:11.385]and this phantom camera that shoots
- [01:12:13.360]at 800 frames per second.
- [01:12:17.028]And it only records eight seconds' worth
- [01:12:19.575]of footage at one time.
- [01:12:22.714]So, a really specialized shoot.
- [01:12:24.335]Now, this was our first test crew.
- [01:12:26.503]We had a tiny woman who could,
- [01:12:28.073]cinematographer who could climb right into the wind tunnel.
- [01:12:31.908]And this is her focus puller, Lawrence.
- [01:12:36.986]So he was actually trying to focus
- [01:12:38.853]as the bird was flying very quickly.
- [01:12:40.734]It's a very difficult process.
- [01:12:44.141]So we were testing the concept,
- [01:12:47.307]and we were able to produce a short film trailer,
- [01:12:50.367]which helped us actually get some funders behind the film.
- [01:12:58.402]And the scientists were really impressed
- [01:13:00.145]with the footage that we got.
- [01:13:04.019]They saw things that they had never seen before.
- [01:13:07.353]And they agreed to collaborate with us for future filming.
- [01:13:10.965]We created the short film, as I mentioned,
- [01:13:13.218]used it as a teaser reel.
- [01:13:15.898]And with Bridget's expertise and her voice
- [01:13:18.242]on the trailer reel, the project started to get noticed.
- [01:13:23.561]After that, it took us another two years
- [01:13:25.527]to raise enough money to go into full production.
- [01:13:29.566]We had to get the permits to capture the birds.
- [01:13:32.271]That was all done through Canadian Wildlife Services.
- [01:13:35.652]The birds were captured at the Long Point Area
- [01:13:38.413]on Lake Erie, on the Ontario side of Lake Erie.
- [01:13:42.904]And they were safely housed in an aviary.
- [01:13:46.378]And they had to be habituated to fly in the wind tunnel.
- [01:13:51.000]So it was a great collaboration
- [01:13:52.342]between artists and scientists.
- [01:13:55.670]And now I'm gonna show you a little
- [01:13:57.110]behind-the-scenes video,
- [01:13:58.678]it's just four and a half minutes long,
- [01:14:00.923]to show you how we did it
- [01:14:02.186]when we went back two years later
- [01:14:04.105]and we had some specific species
- [01:14:06.264]that we were able to film.
- [01:14:10.441](birds chirping softly in distance)
- [01:14:24.674]We're gonna download it,
- [01:14:25.500]which is gonna take at least five minutes.
- [01:14:26.717]Ok.
- [01:14:27.137]I think it's, real-time, three minutes?
- [01:14:28.546]Yeah.
- [01:14:28.907]Right, so, by the time, then, then,
- [01:14:31.209]Perfect.
- [01:14:31.769]we're gonna find another position
- [01:14:32.779]or whatever, and then--
- [01:14:33.689]Yeah, well I think let's keep the same position
- [01:14:35.375]but he'll have to capture that bird,
- [01:14:36.744]bring it back to the tent, bring it back,
- [01:14:38.526]which is gonna take a couple minutes,
- [01:14:40.230]so it's perfect.
- [01:14:40.897]While you bird run, he downloads.
- [01:14:44.314]It's a perfect team.
- [01:14:45.147]Yeah, that should work out, yeah.
- [01:14:45.805]Perfect combo.
- [01:14:46.345]Ok, you guys let me know.
- [01:14:47.075]Whatever works the best.
- [01:14:49.532]The challenge is, birds like to fly at night,
- [01:14:52.250]with zero light.
- [01:14:54.240]And we have to illuminate it to photograph it.
- [01:14:59.270]There's a moment when you're gonna get your shot.
- [01:15:01.156]It's the moment when the bird can fly in a bit of light.
- [01:15:03.807]It's the moment when we can get it in focus,
- [01:15:05.622]because the depth of field is about half an inch.
- [01:15:09.697]And even though the image looks like it's flying slowly,
- [01:15:13.863]it's flying fast (laughing).
- [01:15:15.749]Very, very, very, very fast.
- [01:15:17.055]Faster than a camera can move,
- [01:15:18.403]faster than a person can focus.
- [01:15:20.759]So, if it all comes together, it's just magic.
- [01:15:25.091]Booyah.
- [01:15:28.909]That was fun.
- [01:15:31.669]Just a beautiful bird.
- [01:15:34.888]Ok, we are live.
- [01:15:36.849]So, we're live, so we're gonna
- [01:15:37.812]Good.
- [01:15:38.353]try and get the bird as far forward
- [01:15:39.245]All right. Here we go. as we can.
- [01:15:40.647]Bird's flying.
- [01:15:43.274](imitating bird chirps) Come on, bud.
- [01:15:45.697]People always ask, "Why do they fly in a wind tunnel?
- [01:15:48.139]"They're flying in place.
- [01:15:49.137]"It's so artificial."
- [01:15:50.680]But I really think from their point of view,
- [01:15:55.111]they want to fly.
- [01:15:56.706]And all of a sudden, they've got this wind
- [01:15:57.946]blowing in their face,
- [01:15:58.948]and they have a natural propensity to open their wings
- [01:16:02.833]and try and fly away.
- [01:16:04.521]And now all of a sudden, they are flying.
- [01:16:06.111]They're exercising.
- [01:16:07.039]It feels like flight.
- [01:16:08.976]And they seem to focus on that
- [01:16:10.747]and not be too distracted by, you know,
- [01:16:12.941]the fact that the ground's not moving or things like that.
- [01:16:18.419]And they're gonna push him forward.
- [01:16:19.697]It's good.
- [01:16:24.012]He's trying to figure out why
- [01:16:24.989]the sun is on the ground.
- [01:16:27.099]Focus on the foreground.
- [01:16:28.091]Focus, focus, focus.
- [01:16:29.119]Cut! Yep!
- [01:16:30.558]Oh, let's grab this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [01:16:33.772]When you work with these kind of animals that are small,
- [01:16:37.113]and they have such amazing speed of reaction
- [01:16:42.130]that you can't even judge as a human being.
- [01:16:44.373]Looking through the wind tunnel,
- [01:16:45.621]all I see is a bird flying back and forth.
- [01:16:49.194]And when I see the footage that we shot for the film,
- [01:16:53.944]I see this bird that is sometimes gliding
- [01:16:58.324]more than it's flapping.
- [01:16:59.848]What I see is flap, flap, flap, flap, flap.
- [01:17:02.454]And what's actually happening is flap.
- [01:17:04.530]Flap.
- [01:17:05.492]And then pull the wings in and glide,
- [01:17:08.337]like a little ski jumper.
- [01:17:11.342]But they're also looking around
- [01:17:13.484]and checking out their environment,
- [01:17:15.591]and these kind of things are just happening
- [01:17:17.788]too fast for me to even see.
- [01:17:20.183]So I've gained a huge respect for
- [01:17:23.864]how much they're able to process
- [01:17:25.512]and how quickly they're able to respond.
- [01:17:31.456]To be a good scientist, you have to be inherently creative.
- [01:17:34.595]You have to be thinking about things in new ways.
- [01:17:39.176]You have to be looking at information that we have
- [01:17:41.973]and trying to visualize it in your mind.
- [01:17:45.032]I think there's a close link between art and science.
- [01:17:48.817]And they're both very creative activities.
- [01:17:52.094]So, I think that there is a natural link there.
- [01:17:56.590]But I think there's also an important link
- [01:17:58.851]in terms of communicating the research that we're doing
- [01:18:03.476]to everyone else on the planet.
- [01:18:07.015](slow, gentle chamber-style music)
- [01:18:27.310]Ok, buddy.
- [01:18:28.660]Ready to go? Ready to go?
- [01:18:31.696]There you go.
- [01:18:33.243]Here we go.
- [01:18:39.830]Away you go.
- [01:18:44.753](bird sings)
- [01:18:48.359]We don't think anybody had ever filmed songbirds
- [01:18:50.557]like that before.
- [01:18:52.210]There have been some wind tunnels
- [01:18:54.683]used for different studies,
- [01:18:55.988]but we think we're the first.
- [01:18:58.329]I have since found out that, I think,
- [01:18:59.883]somebody's filmed some bats in a wind tunnel like that.
- [01:19:03.318]But we're really pleased
- [01:19:04.811]with the spectacular footage that we got.
- [01:19:07.265]And we only had one indigo bunting.
- [01:19:09.452]Some of the other species we had others,
- [01:19:11.690]but we just had one indigo bunting.
- [01:19:13.890]And he's really the star of the film.
- [01:19:18.377]So, now we're marketing the film.
- [01:19:21.436]We're looking at marketing the film.
- [01:19:23.073]And our early promotion messages,
- [01:19:25.628]we really wanted to use the scientists in the film,
- [01:19:28.105]like Bridget, and the eco-warriors,
- [01:19:30.402]the people who weren't scientists,
- [01:19:31.751]who are ordinary people and just passionate
- [01:19:33.881]about the issues and passionate about saving birds.
- [01:19:38.884]And when you come and see the film,
- [01:19:40.272]you'll see some of those people.
- [01:19:43.218]So, we have messages like this
- [01:19:46.185]from Alejandra Martinez Salinas.
- [01:19:48.462]She's in Costa Rica.
- [01:19:50.539]We filmed with her in Costa Rica.
- [01:19:52.347]She is from the University of Idaho.
- [01:19:56.137]Andrea Rutigliano, he is based in Italy.
- [01:20:00.329]And he works with the Committee Against Bird Slaughter
- [01:20:02.708]out of Germany.
- [01:20:05.792]You recognize this lady.
- [01:20:08.184]And Erin Bayne, he is in the film.
- [01:20:10.950]He's from Alberta and he works
- [01:20:14.451]with industry and biology,
- [01:20:16.977]and he's trying to see how we can protect species
- [01:20:19.873]in the boreal forest.
- [01:20:22.119]Christy Morrissey, who's in the film,
- [01:20:24.318]she's an ecotoxicologist, and she talks about
- [01:20:28.440]the effects of some of the newer pesticides
- [01:20:31.104]on bird populations.
- [01:20:33.976]And then we also have these guys as messengers.
- [01:20:47.081]There's been an evolution of the marketing messages
- [01:20:49.400]with the film, with the release, and now we're doing
- [01:20:52.182]some different types of social media marketing.
- [01:20:56.297]So, here, this is Erin Bayne talking to an ovenbird.
- [01:21:01.213]Another message.
- [01:21:04.581]This is actually a chestnut-sided warbler
- [01:21:06.732]that we filmed in Costa Rica.
- [01:21:11.821]And we found a wood thrush there too.
- [01:21:15.293]And we filmed at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City
- [01:21:18.368]with Andrew Farnsworth from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- [01:21:21.911]to find out how the lights of the memorial
- [01:21:24.453]are attracting birds during migration season
- [01:21:28.482]and what's being done about it.
- [01:21:32.398]We've had some great media coverage too.
- [01:21:35.342]Reviews.
- [01:21:48.698]So now we're at the stage where we're also working
- [01:21:52.072]with partners to amplify the messaging in the film.
- [01:21:55.544]And that's one of the reasons we're here today
- [01:21:57.608]at the university and working
- [01:21:59.606]with the Wild Bird Habitat Store.
- [01:22:01.836]We've worked with Bird Studies Canada
- [01:22:03.272]as a national outreach partner in Canada
- [01:22:05.187]and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for the U.S. partner.
- [01:22:10.098]And FLAP, that's the Fatal Light Awareness group
- [01:22:12.743]that picks up the dead birds in Toronto.
- [01:22:14.690]And they're world leaders in rescuing birds
- [01:22:17.744]from collisions with buildings.
- [01:22:20.604]And we're at the stage where the film is carrying on
- [01:22:23.923]with a take-action and an impact campaign.
- [01:22:28.227]And we want to connect people with ways
- [01:22:30.686]that they can make a difference.
- [01:22:32.530]We've adopted this hash tag, #birdsmatter.
- [01:22:36.323]And at as many screenings as possible,
- [01:22:39.367]we're trying to get a take-action slide
- [01:22:41.986]on the screen in the theater afterwards.
- [01:22:44.348]And we're partnering with groups
- [01:22:46.406]to present and host the film,
- [01:22:48.883]so that they can also talk about the local issues
- [01:22:51.759]in their communities.
- [01:22:58.270]So I just ask you to imagine a world without birdsong.
- [01:23:01.789]And I want to thank the university,
- [01:23:05.993]and Mary Brown, Wild Birds Unlimited, Dave Titterington,
- [01:23:10.641]Linda Titterington, Bridget, Danny Ladley from the Ross,
- [01:23:15.057]and you for coming here today.
- [01:23:17.492]And they made our trip possible, so thank you very much.
- [01:23:21.747]Yeah, hi. It's all very interesting.
- [01:23:23.436]I'm actually a birder myself,
- [01:23:24.977]and I follow birds quite closely.
- [01:23:26.981]But my question isn't to do with birds.
- [01:23:29.565]I actually want to know, what is a film?
- [01:23:32.230]How do you get it to the theater these days?
- [01:23:34.571]And does that make
- [01:23:37.469]problems for small distribution
- [01:23:39.682]to have a physical thing
- [01:23:42.044]to sell or distribute?
- [01:23:46.538]You're asking what is a film these days.
- [01:23:48.430]Yeah. Physically, what is the film?
- [01:23:50.343]Is it a disc?
- [01:23:52.588]No, in the movie theaters,
- [01:23:55.162]you're running on a digital cinema projection hard drive.
- [01:23:59.576]But the film will be available on DVD and Blu-ray.
- [01:24:04.337]It'll be released in the U.S. market in May.
- [01:24:08.455]And it will eventually be on Netflix in the U.S. as well.
- [01:24:12.031]We have a few sales on Netflix.
- [01:24:16.346]And we're hoping to develop
- [01:24:17.663]educational packages for schools.
- [01:24:21.604]That's one of the reasons why we still have a Donate button
- [01:24:24.786]on our web site, 'cause we're looking for contributions
- [01:24:27.204]to help pay for the development of further materials.
- [01:24:30.263]We have, of course, a lot of footage
- [01:24:31.653]that was left on the editing room floor, so to speak,
- [01:24:35.205]that didn't make it into the film.
- [01:24:37.071]We've got other things that we could use for that,
- [01:24:40.541]for educational purposes.
- [01:24:42.361]For instance, we have a great section,
- [01:24:43.941]we have a great little piece that is on cowbirds
- [01:24:48.641]and the predation of wood thrush nests
- [01:24:51.591]that didn't make it into the film.
- [01:24:53.946]Yeah, just continuing, is it a big expense
- [01:24:58.139]for you to distribute a film in a digital form
- [01:25:03.064]if it's such a small product?
- [01:25:06.431](inaudible as the microphone fails here)
- [01:25:12.316]portion of the budget was about $800,000,
- [01:25:15.831]the Canadian portion.
- [01:25:16.953]And then France also put in money
- [01:25:20.676]on top of that to help make the film.
- [01:25:23.556]And we have a U.S. distributor that has the rights
- [01:25:27.553]to distribute it through all the U.S.
- [01:25:30.432]So, we gave up our rights to them
- [01:25:33.775]in exchange for an advance
- [01:25:35.789]that they helped to fund the film.
- [01:25:38.379]And we will eventually, if we ever pay off the loan
- [01:25:41.611]that they gave us as an advance,
- [01:25:43.667]then we might have a small portion of money come back to us.
- [01:25:48.309]But it takes a long time to recoup the money
- [01:25:51.737]invested through box office.
- [01:25:54.541]We're hoping people will go to the movie theaters
- [01:25:56.708]and see it, because it's a different experience
- [01:25:59.568]than watching it at home on your television.
- [01:26:01.638]It's got an amazing soundtrack.
- [01:26:03.978]And you can imagine that footage in a big movie theater,
- [01:26:07.286]how spectacular it looks.
- [01:26:10.131]Does that answer your questions?
- [01:26:11.290]Sure.
- [01:26:11.790]Ok, thank you.
- [01:26:14.297]Hi, really fascinating work
- [01:26:16.082]that you're both doing.
- [01:26:17.465]I'm just curious, being in the Great Plains,
- [01:26:18.963]if there's anything in the film
- [01:26:21.554]that highlights grassland birds at all.
- [01:26:24.506]Sorry, can you just put the mike a bit closer?
- [01:26:27.627]Yeah, sorry.
- [01:26:28.327]Is there any emphasis on grassland birds at all in the film?
- [01:26:31.705]Just 'cause we're here in the Great Plains.
- [01:26:34.343]We actually stayed away from statistics
- [01:26:37.231]and graphs in the film.
- [01:26:39.201]We do show some animated examples
- [01:26:41.520]of where tracking is taking place
- [01:26:43.444]and where birds are migrating.
- [01:26:48.260]Yeah, the Saskatchewan.
- [01:26:51.659]Saskatchewan, we have a little bit of statistics
- [01:26:53.724]about the neonicotinoid research
- [01:26:57.321]that Dr. Christy Morrissey was doing.
- [01:27:00.111]But we tried to make the film really accessible
- [01:27:04.808]to a general public,
- [01:27:06.059]so the science in it is solid,
- [01:27:10.255]but it's not fact after fact after fact in the film.
- [01:27:14.391]It's more experiential in that you will go in
- [01:27:18.150]and see some really good
- [01:27:21.883]field action taking place.
- [01:27:24.680]So, field research.
- [01:27:26.638]In all these places, we worked really closely
- [01:27:28.886]with the scientists to show their work.
- [01:27:32.832]And we didn't put a lot of statistics on the screen.
- [01:27:36.400]There's a few things, but not a lot.
- [01:27:45.862]To get the word out to friends and family
- [01:27:48.122]throughout the country, is there a way we can find out
- [01:27:50.795]where this film is shown throughout the country?
- [01:27:53.543]Yeah, if you go on the web site,
- [01:27:55.315]there's a link on the home page that says,
- [01:27:57.779]"Where to see the film".
- [01:27:59.732]And if it's not showing in your community,
- [01:28:02.462]you can request a screening.
- [01:28:04.507]And local Audubon groups across the country
- [01:28:06.945]have already started sponsoring screenings.
- [01:28:10.150]And there's a mechanism called Theatrical On Demand now,
- [01:28:14.098]and if it's not showing in your community,
- [01:28:17.094]our distributor helps find a theater in your area
- [01:28:20.536]where they can actually show the film.
- [01:28:22.928]You have to act as a host or a sponsor for that screening,
- [01:28:27.891]and you have to pre-sell a certain amount of tickets
- [01:28:31.150]before the theater gets confirmed.
- [01:28:33.176]So that's one way to do it.
- [01:28:34.303]And the other way is that they are now,
- [01:28:37.431]in May they'll be starting to sell
- [01:28:40.539]some educational Blu-rays
- [01:28:42.974]with public performance rights,
- [01:28:45.843]so you could show it in an auditorium like this
- [01:28:48.090]at a school or in a community.
- [01:28:55.527]There's one question down here.
- [01:29:05.002]I don't have a question, I have a comment.
- [01:29:06.451]We saw the movie when it was here in Lincoln last year.
- [01:29:10.709]And it is an amazing piece of work.
- [01:29:13.934]Well, thank you.
- [01:29:14.626]And it just, you know,
- [01:29:16.607]we've always enjoyed birding and everything,
- [01:29:18.503]but it just really brought home the fact
- [01:29:20.287]that we really need to step up and do something.
- [01:29:24.446]And I just, I thank you for doing this.
- [01:29:28.541]Thank you very much.
- [01:29:30.317]It's been a labor-of-love project, I have to say.
- [01:29:33.869]What are you gonna do for the next six years?
- [01:29:37.171]I need to take a break at some point.
- [01:29:39.767](audience laughs)
- [01:29:41.113]It's pretty demanding, 'cause the emails don't stop.
- [01:29:44.571]You know, they come in constantly,
- [01:29:46.267]and we're a very, very small team.
- [01:29:48.079]The director has started directing a new film now,
- [01:29:50.687]so a lot of the responsibility's fallen back to me.
- [01:29:54.884]But we're really excited.
- [01:29:56.695]It's a very exciting phase for the film to be in,
- [01:29:59.757]because we think this film has the potential
- [01:30:03.971]to have a lot of impact and to make a difference.
- [01:30:07.904]But we need everybody to pass on the word
- [01:30:10.994]and to do things, to take action,
- [01:30:13.336]and buy bird-friendly coffee.
- [01:30:18.576]In Canada we have a Messenger Blend
- [01:30:21.248]with Birds & Beans Canada,
- [01:30:22.789]so they actually are releasing,
- [01:30:24.800]and you can order this through our web site.
- [01:30:27.848]And Birds & Beans is offering sample packs
- [01:30:30.514]at the opening night tonight.
- [01:30:33.045]Not of this specific blend, but a bird-friendly blend.
- [01:30:37.167]And our blend comes from Guatemala.
- [01:30:39.813]The coffee comes from Guatemala.
- [01:30:46.048]And 10% of all the proceeds go to bird conservation.
- [01:30:51.511]Bridget, I'm gonna ask you a question.
- [01:30:53.396]Ok.
- [01:30:54.253]Ok, 'cause we've worked together on this a long time,
- [01:30:58.306]and you've seen the film now a number of times too.
- [01:31:02.099]I just want you to
- [01:31:06.766]tell us what you think about
- [01:31:08.779]the way your work and other people's work
- [01:31:11.199]around the world has come together in this film.
- [01:31:14.110]Can I share your mike? Sorry.
- [01:31:15.213]Oh, it's ok. There you go.
- [01:31:20.924]Well, when I wrote Silence of the Songbirds back in 2007,
- [01:31:24.518]I was your typical, at that time, scientist who,
- [01:31:27.700]you know, you write a paper, you publish it,
- [01:31:29.650]and then once it's published, it's over.
- [01:31:31.703]Your job is done, basically.
- [01:31:33.233]And it's kind of funny.
- [01:31:35.670]That being my first sort of public book,
- [01:31:38.365]I had no idea I would be facing an avalanche
- [01:31:41.382]of public speaking events.
- [01:31:42.901]I was doing two or three talks a week for the first year,
- [01:31:47.399]being invited all over the place to give talks.
- [01:31:50.417]And for me, the opportunity
- [01:31:53.754]to reach out to the community
- [01:31:56.644]and share my message through giving talks
- [01:32:00.313]was incredibly rewarding.
- [01:32:02.251]And, again, for some reason,
- [01:32:03.557]I didn't anticipate all the interest.
- [01:32:07.093]And to have a fabulous, award-winning documentary like this
- [01:32:11.064]be inspired by the book
- [01:32:12.494]is just the icing on the cake for me.
- [01:32:14.875]And it just goes to show, as we were talking earlier,
- [01:32:17.545]this sort of creativity that goes into being a scientist
- [01:32:20.963]and the creativity that goes into being an artist
- [01:32:23.491]are really one and the same.
- [01:32:25.431]And to be able to be on that borderline between the two
- [01:32:29.227]and entering one world and be able to shift
- [01:32:31.727]between one world and the other kind of seamlessly
- [01:32:35.335]is a skill that I've learned over the last 10 years or so.
- [01:32:38.886]And when you publish a scientific article,
- [01:32:44.318]you might get some media coverage of it,
- [01:32:46.593]but largely that's read only by other scientists.
- [01:32:49.771]And so to be able to produce a creative work
- [01:32:52.489]that's read by thousands of people around the world
- [01:32:55.671]and has a true impact.
- [01:32:57.686]I know people who have set up their own coffee shops
- [01:33:01.288]as a result of reading the book.
- [01:33:03.053]Somebody who spent six years of love
- [01:33:05.789]making a documentary against all odds.
- [01:33:10.741]The Birds & Beans Company in Boston, the U.S. one,
- [01:33:13.302]was set up after I wrote my book.
- [01:33:16.061]And so, just as
- [01:33:19.293]Joanne was saying about the documentary,
- [01:33:21.663]the point is for it to have long-lasting impact.
- [01:33:25.517]And I certainly think that's been the case.
- [01:33:29.079]I was interested in your motivation
- [01:33:31.516](questioner's voice becomes indistinct)
- [01:33:43.023]Well, I'm always interested in a good story.
- [01:33:47.678]That's what drives me in working in film and television.
- [01:33:51.807]And I worked for a while at Discovery Channel
- [01:33:55.392]and also for Animal Planet Canada
- [01:33:58.093]as a production executive.
- [01:33:59.634]And I saw a lot of pitches for films come through,
- [01:34:04.368]documentaries, TV series, and this really, to me,
- [01:34:09.219]was astounding that this was such an important story
- [01:34:12.538]that hadn't been told.
- [01:34:13.931]And finding the right team
- [01:34:17.687]to do it and put it together
- [01:34:20.104]was a challenge as a filmmaker, as a producer.
- [01:34:24.353]And I have to say that I wasn't a birder
- [01:34:29.503]in the beginning, but like,
- [01:34:32.023]I now have seven bird feeders in my backyard.
- [01:34:36.388]I have a heated bird bath for the winter.
- [01:34:40.293]I'm learning a lot.
- [01:34:42.726]And shade coffee, I'm a big ambassador
- [01:34:45.843]for shade-grown coffee.
- [01:34:47.663]One small coffee shop that sells 100 pounds
- [01:34:50.980]of certified bird-friendly coffee in a year
- [01:34:55.822]can save 17 hectares of land
- [01:34:59.524]in Central America from being deforested,
- [01:35:02.597]so that's an amazing driving force for me.
- [01:35:08.237]I've become a huge environmentalist,
- [01:35:12.212]more so than I was six years ago.
- [01:35:14.166]And I'm not tired of birds, I have to say.
- [01:35:18.676]I just think they're really fascinating,
- [01:35:20.257]and there's so much to learn about them,
- [01:35:22.008]and they're so beautiful.
- [01:35:23.505]And we have an opportunity.
- [01:35:28.199]There is hope in this film in that we can make a difference.
- [01:35:32.004]And that's why I'm excited about it.
- [01:35:34.753]And I'm still working on the impact campaign
- [01:35:37.214]and really trying to make sure that this film
- [01:35:41.283]does change hearts and minds.
- [01:35:46.500]Anybody else?
- [01:35:49.214]Well, thank you very much.
- [01:35:51.413](audience applauds)
- [01:35:52.439]Thank you.
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