Matt Hack: Tracking Songbird Migration Using Geolocators

Name: Matt Hack: Tracking Songbird Migration Using Geolocators
Start: 2026-06-17T18:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-06-17T19:30:00-04:00
Location: Ann Arbor District Library

Schedule

Wed Jun 17 2026 at 06:00 pm to 07:30 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Ann Arbor District Library | Ann Arbor, MI

We are currently living in a golden age of rapid discovery explaining the mysteries of bird migration. A variety of new technologies are currently being developed to better understand how, where, and why birds migrate. A key tool in studying the biology of migratory birds is the geolocator — a small tracking device attached to a migrating bird that can reveal the journeys and destinations the bird experiences throughout the year.
As part of his University of Michigan dissertation research, Matt Hack has spent the past three summers stationed at the UMich Biological Station in the northern Lower Peninsula, attaching geolocators to several species of songbirds that share their breeding grounds in the boreal forest but migrate to a wide range of destinations and climates to spend their winters. He has two primary goals behind tracking these birds — to uncover the timelines and destinations of their migration journeys, and to use that information to better understand how different migration strategies can affect the ecology of these travelers. He is excited to share what he has learned in the process!
This talk will be live at the Ann Arbor District Library: Downtown, streamed live on the WBNA's YouTube page, and posted on the YouTube page to watch at any time.
Photo courtesy of the National Park Service