Ecologist Dr. Ryan Norris spoke to Audubon about his work with other ornithologists across North America using geolocators to track songbirds in an effort to determine their fall migration route.  

Norris said when he first heard about geolocators, he immediately thought of his research on blackpoll warblers and the “indirect evidence that they were flying over the Atlantic” Ocean. He later decided to collaborate with the lead researchers after learning they had the same reaction to the technology. 

A professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, Norris studies the behaviour, conservation and evolution of migratory animals, birds and insects.