Spectacular Spring Migration in Costa Rica

Following a recent rejuvenation of the migration monitoring site orchestrated by Hawk Mountain, new collaborations with international organizations, and devotion from a group of world-class biologists including former Hawk Mountain trainee Pablo Porras and Hawk Mountain’s Conserve the Corridor Initiative, Kéköldi is now a fully-operational biological field station conducting spring and autumn raptor migration counts annually. It also continuously collects tracking data via the MOTUS network and its newly installed receiver and antenna, hosts international graduate students and scientists, and presents education programs to locals. Led by an experienced and highly knowledgeable team of counters including Julio Madriz, Isabel Cordero and others, the station conducts all these activities in one of the most biologically diverse area on the planet.

While writing this piece, we were also monitoring the movements of satellite-tagged broad-winged hawks and turkey vultures that are known to migrate through the region twice annually. Select numbers of birds representing both species carry a tracking transmitter that allow us to assess movement ecology and habitat use across the continent. These birds, which wintered across Central and South America, are now making their way back to their breeding grounds in North America.

But it’s the daily numbers of migrating raptors that are so astonishing. While counting more than 1,000 raptors passing overhead, we are aware that some may carry a tiny transmitter but spotting a miniscule backpack device on one of 8,000-plus birds is simply like looking for a needle in a haystack.