Over three years of movement data from one bird

This is V4, the Little Eagle who features on the masthead of the Little Eagle Research Group facebook page. The antenna of her gps-tag can just be seen in that photo, protruding behind her. She has now dropped her tag as can be seen here, as she sits in a tree above where the tag was found today.

The habitat was a bit overgrown after three rainy years, with tall thick shrubs, and tall grasses and forbs beneath.

The tag was tricky to see, lying amongst the grass and leaf litter.

The tag (made by GeoTrak Inc.) is about 6 cm long, with a 20 cm antenna, and painted eagle brown to blend in with bird's plumage.

Fortunately, the tag was still sending out its position via satellite, so we could read the coordinates of where it was lying and find it quite quickly depsite the terrain.

The tag was fitted with a teflon harness, like the straps of a backpack. A weak link of cotton thread joined all four straps at the breast, and this was designed to break after a period of time. 

The thread broke three years and five months after deployment, perfectly timed as the device was still running, but we do not expect it to last much longer. In that time, data from four breeding and three wintering seasons have been downloaded, a wealth of information. The bird spent all that time within the Australian Capital Territory, spending each non-breeding period in the same area about 20 km from where she was first caught and tagged, and about 10 km from her current nest site.

She has done well and we wish her all the best. 

Thank you for the data lovely bird.