The Cuckoo Scoop: Cuckoo-Finder

Showing posts with label Cuckoo-Finder. Show all posts

Thursday, July 21, 2011

The 'Cuckoo-Finder' in Action!

A few of the cuckoos that we fitted with radio transmitters down near Blythe have gone missing, so this morning, Anna and I (Alex Lamoreaux) drove around to all of our cuckoo sites to search for them using our car-mounted radio-receiver. This 'Cuckoo-Finder', as we call it, has two yagi antennas, that work in unison to be able to pick up a cuckoo's radio telemetry unit (transmitter) from quite a distance away. Below is a photo of the 'Cuckoo-Finder' in action!

Photo by Alex Lamoreaux

Yellow-billed Cuckoo - Breeding Biology and Population Dynamics along the Lower Colorado River

The Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) is a neotropical migrant that historically bred in riparian habitats throughout much of North America. Since the late 1800's, many of the forests that cuckoos depended upon, particularly in the West, have been destroyed or degraded by human activity. As a result, both the range and population of breeding cuckoos has decreased dramatically and the western population is currently a candidate for Endangered Species status. Our research focuses on documenting the reproductive biology of this poorly known species and developing survey techniques that reliably estimate numbers of breeding cuckoos along the lower Colorado River. This blog will showcase photos and information about the project. For more information about the Southern Sierra Research Station, visit this link.