• Tracking the fall bird migration at Phillips Tract

    Oct 9, 2025 7:00 am by Xander HazelNatural History Survey
    A black, white, and yellow bird held in hand.

    A magnolia warbler (Setophaga magnolia) captured at Phillips Tract.

    Images

    • A black, white, and yellow bird held in hand.
    • A grey-green bird held by two hands. From it's back, an antennae runs the longitudinally.
    • A woman wearing a bandana, a striped sweater, and glasses uses banding pliers on a bird.
    • A woman with a pink hat and blue sweatshirt untangles a bird from a net

    As autumn arrives, millions of birds migrate southward across the United States to warmer latitudes. In central Illinois, Tara Beveroth, avian ecologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, operates a bird banding station. Each week this autumn a volunteer group of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students and researchers assist Beveroth in the capture and banding of migratory birds. Illinois lies in the Mississippi Flyway, one of North America’s major migratory corridors.

    A woman with a pink hat and blue sweatshirt untangles a bird from a net

    Tara Beveroth gently removes a bird caught in one of the mist nets.

    Before sunrise, Beveroth meets the volunteer group at Phillips Tract, a 130-acre research site northeast of Urbana. She is joined by chief collaborators Janice Enos, INHS avian biologist, and Mike Avara, lab coordinator in the U. of I. Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences , to set up mist nets and prepare the bird banding station. Mist nets are stretched through the successional woodland, where birds fly into the fine mesh and are gently removed by the researchers at regular intervals throughout the morning.

    Captured birds are carried in individual cotton bags to the banding station, where the team records morphometric data such as sex, age, body fat, body mass, and tail, tarsus, and wing lengths. Each bird is fitted with a small metal band stamped with a unique serial number. If a bird has already been banded, its number is logged again. The data are later submitted to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Laboratory, which has maintained a national database since 1920.

    “Bird banding is important to answer questions about the natural history of a species to benefit conservation,” said Beveroth. “It is especially valuable where gaps in knowledge exist, such as understanding the full annual cycles and where young individuals disperse.”

    A woman wearing a bandana, a striped sweater, and glasses uses banding pliers on a bird.

    Sonia Tomcyk uses banding pliers to secure a metal band to the leg of a cardinal (Carinalis cardinalis).

    During the spring and fall migrations, Beveroth invites students – such as members of the student chapter of the Wildlife Society – to observe fieldwork and data collection. Sonia Tomcyk, who recently completed her master’s degree in NRES, participated in the banding station.

    “What makes the banding station so valuable to me is the chance to gain hands-on skills from mentors like Tara and Janice,” said Tomcyk.

    Now an ecology researcher contracted with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tomcyk added, “I’m particularly interested in how foraging and diet behaviors shift across rural and urban landscapes. These kinds of questions can be answered with the type of data banding stations provide.”

    This year, Beveroth, Enos, and Avara are also collaborating with colleagues at INHS, the U. of I. and Powdermill Avian Research Center in Pennsylvania on two new projects. One uses rapid blood tests to measure metabolites such as ketones and triglycerides, offering insights into the metabolism of migratory birds. The other involves attaching small radio transmitters to birds to try to gather more data about stopover habitat use and migratory routes.

    A grey-green bird held by two hands. From it’s back, an antennae runs the longitudinally.

    Janice Enos gently holds a bird with a radio antenna secured to its back.

    Banding data provides critical information on bird lifespans, survival rates, behavior, and population trends. The results also inform conservation and management — especially in Illinois, where fragments of natural habitat are surrounded by vast agricultural landscapes.

    “Protecting migratory birds requires an intercontinental effort,” Beveroth said. “Multiple conservation-driven entities are coming together to centralize accessible data and better understand where and how to conserve critical habitats throughout a bird’s full annual life cycle.”

    For a firsthand account of a banding morning at Phillips Tract, read Beveroth’s 2022 story.

    To support scientific research and hands-on learning opportunities like these, consider a gift to the INHS Annual Fund.

    The Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign provides scientific expertise and transformative research to the people of Illinois and beyond. PRI is home to the five state scientific surveys: the Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois State Archaeological Survey, Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois State Water Survey, and Illinois Sustainable Technology Center.