Tracking bird movement and behaviour at multiple scales in space and time is no easy task. A team at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have worked together to develop a flexible, state of the art Bird Tracking System, the UvA-BiTS. We began developments in 2006 and our first tags were tested on a few species in the wild in 2008. Since then, UvA-BiTS has supported numerous researchers and research projects around the world. Our research focuses on the movement ecology of birds. We study migration, local movements and flight strategies in relation to weather conditions and landscape properties.
The UvA-BiTS system includes a solar-powered, light-weight GPS tracker with rechargeable batteries, a tri-axial accelerometer, two-way data communication to a ground station network, automated data processing and visualization in the Virtual Lab. Researchers from multiple organizations are working with this system to study migration, navigation, foraging strategies on land and at sea. The system is available for collaborative research and will continue to develop and foster the research needs of a diverse community.
As our ambition was to develop collaborative research, we did not sell UvA-BiTS for commercial purposes. Since 2023, we are no longer producing UvA-BiTS tags for external use. However, our services are still available for all of our users and there are active trackers and projects still measuring bird movement.