Today we take it for granted that birds migrate — maybe we don’t know where, but we know it’s a fact. Until the past couple of hundred years, though, migration was not a given. In fact, for most of history migration was a persistent and largely unsolvable mystery, with dozens of theories that ranged from the likely to the preposterous.

In 2007, using the same type of devices that CTT manufactures, a few godwits were fitted with tiny, solar-powered trackers, and that allowed scientists to follow their exact journey, which has proven to be the longest non-stop flight for any bird! With Terra, we hope to discover more of those secrets.

In spite of our advanced technology, places like the Arctic Circle pose challenges to researchers that can be impossible to overcome. Deep cold, days without sunlight, and deadly storms all make studying the creatures of the far north especially difficult. The fact that any creature survives in such menacing conditions is a miracle of nature, and no animal is so miraculous as the Spectacled Eider. 

In 1822, a White Stork arrived in Germany with an African arrow lodged in its throat. It was the first evidence of bird migration between the continents. But migration mysteries are not only a thing of the past. We at the Terra Project are driven by questions about migration that are yet to be solved.

Until the twentieth century, no one knew why birds disappeared for part of the year, and to where. Technologies such as bird banding, radio tracking and bioacoustics help us solve the many mysteries of bird migration.