Grassland birds have declined more rapidly than any other group of land birds in North America in the last 50 years, with populations of Spragues Pipit, Chestnut-collared and Thick-billed Longspur, and Bairds Sparrow having declined 65-94% during this period. This proposed cross-programmatic collaborative project between Migratory Birds and Refuges will expand on a growing network of Motus automated radio telemetry receivers (stations) to provide the first fine-scale quantitative assessment of the migratory period for regional priority grassland songbirds, which will inform key knowledge gaps about migration routes and stopover locations. Data collected via Motus automated telemetry tracking will allow the FWS and partners to inform full-life cycle models to reveal limiting factors and identify critical time periods and associated habitats for these species throughout the annual cycle (see review in Somershoe 2018). This project will fill critical gaps in a growing network of Motus stations being installed in the central grasslands by specifically locating stations on National Wildlife Refuges in South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and New Mexico, and without this effort we will not be able to maximize the effectiveness of the Motus network in the central grasslands.
