common crane tracking
Adult common crane has been equipped with OrniTrack-50 transmitter.
The map below shows the track of this bird from Lithuania to wintering grounds in Spain and the return migration in spring. It is interesting to note that about half of the migration path was flown at night during autumn migration. During spring migration this individual also spent the entire night in flight when crossing Germany.
Charts below the map represent examples of crane flight altitude recorded by the GPS module and the barometric pressure sensor (altimeter). Values logged by the barometric sensor have lower variability compared to the GPS-recorded altitude, but barometric measurements need to be corrected for changes in atmospheric pressure.
The tracking data of this bird is regularly updated on Movebank portal using live feed, study "Common Crane Lithuania GPS, 2015". However, starting from late March 2016 we restricted public access to the data on Movebank in order to prevent unnecessary broadcasting of the breeding site.
Fig 1. The path of common crane tracked during autumn (red line) and spring (yellow line) migrations. The track has been simplified by merging the adjacent positions.
Fig 2. Flight altitude of migrating crane recorded at 1 minute intervals by GPS module and barometric altimeter.
