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'Wandering' Birds of the Great Basin
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Choose a tab to wander with the pelicans, falcons, or hawks!
More information about this site and the data used on the maps. (Click arrow to view/close).
'Wandering' Birds of the Great Basin is a series of interactive maps showing the movements of 3 birds (1 ferruginous hawk, 1 American white pelican, and 1 prairie falcon)
that were tracked using satellite telemetry. This means the birds were fitted with transmitters that sent regular signals to a group of orbiting satellites. The satellites then send
signals to a computer back on earth, which calculates the location of the bird. In this way biologists can keep track of each bird's distant travels.
Using the tabs below, you can choose a bird to focus on. You will see a map of the western United States with icons that show where the bird has visited. The special icons, like the ones you see to the right,
each link to additional information about the bird, its location, and what it might have been doing there. Click on each icon to see this information and a photograph. Also, look for links to web sites that provide
additional information or interesting ideas. The smaller dots on each map show bird locations recorded by the satellites that do not link to additional information.
Each of these locations, the icons and the dots, are estimates and have varying degrees of accuracy, but at this regional scale they provide a good indication of a given bird's travels.
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U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
