What is Motus?

Motus (Latin for movement) is a wildlife tracking system that uses automated radio telemetry to track the movement and behavior of birds, bats, and insects. These animals carry miniaturized Motus tags that transmit information to Motus antenna stations placed across the globe. This exciting, powerful, new conservation tool is changing our understanding of these species and how to protect them.

Non-Motus tags are expensive and once placed on a bird, for example, the information is difficult or almost impossible to retrieve. Handheld antennas have to be close to the bird to retrieve information, or the bird has to be recaptured to retrieve the information stored on the tag. The majority of the birds are never recaptured.

Tiny Motus tags are less expensive, last longer, easily provide their data, and are much more likely to transmit their stored data. Once placed on a bird, the bird does not have to be chased with an antenna or recaptured to recover the data. Every time a Motus-tagged bird is near a Motus station, the station picks up the data stored on the tag.

Tag data is uploaded to the Motus database housed at Birds Canada’s National Data Centre in Ontario. This centralized database contains all the data from all the Motus stations around the world and makes the information freely available to researchers and the public at motus.org. Scientists can analyze the data to glean details, such as a bird’s movements, when it’s active, when it’s sleeping, and when it takes flight.

Here is one amazing example of the information Motus has provided: A Swainson’s Thrush was tagged in Panama on March 29, 2024. It made its way north and was detected at Turney, Tennessee on May 19 and then Sheboygan, Wisconsin on May 23. It migrated south through Georgia and Florida in September and October. The bird returned to Panama for the winter of 2024/25. It started north on April 15, 2025 and was detected at Jasper-Pulaski, Indiana on May 15. On May 16 it was last detected at Kaukauna, Wisconsin. On its journeys during these two years, it was detected by 19 Motus stations.

Motus sounds too good to be true. Right? But, there is one limitation. There are not enough Motus stations to detect the tags. Each station has about a 9 mile radius in which it can dependably detect tags. If stations are further apart, tagged birds can go through the gap undetected.

In Wisconsin, the Motus initiative is being coor-dinated by the Lake Michigan Bird Observatory (LMBO). LMBO is  respon-sible for erecting most of the current stations and for the construction of new stations. Currently, Motus stations are mainly found along the shore of Lake Michigan and the shores of Green Bay. The rest of the state has only a few scattered stations. A line of stations running roughly east/west across the state is needed to increase the likelihood of detecting tagged birds.

Here in the Fox Cities, we already have several stations that could be thought of as the start of a line across the state. These include the Waupaca Biological Field Station, Clark’s Point (north of Winneconne), and 1000 Islands Environmental Center (Kaukauna). In addition, a new station will soon be active at Collins Marsh. The Oshkosh/Neenah/Menasha area is a perfect spot for a new station, and it would help fill one of the gaps. This area is also a great spot because of all the lakes, rivers, and wetlands that attract so many different birds.

A new station in the Fox Cities would not only detect migrants, but it would also help us learn the movements of our state Purple Martins. Purple Martin expert, Dick Nikolai, hopes to Motus-tag many Wisconsin Martins in 2026 to learn their movements when in Wisconsin and also to their wintering grounds in Brazil. Winnebago Audubon plans to purchase tags for this project. More stations in our part of the state would greatly aid in the tracking of Purple Martins tagged by Dick.

Motus stations are expensive, about $5,000 each and Motus tags about $300 each. However, Winnebago Audubon feels this is a very worthwhile cause considering the valuable information that could be obtained. Any information that could help us protect birds is priceless.

I hope this information gets you interested in Motus and helps you see how valuable Motus is for monitoring our birds. The more Motus stations that are put up and the more birds that are tagged, the more we will learn about the birds we love.

By Tom Ziebell