Rising Tide Images
Transmitting
A kioea in flight along the shoreline looking for feeding opportunities is fitted with a satellite transmitter. The kioea, or bristle-thighed curlew, has a beautiful distinctively long, decurved bill used for foraging in tall grass, mud, sand, and reef flats exposed at low tide. Bristle-thighed curlews are the only shorebird known to use tools, reportedly using stones to break the eggs of albatrosses.
I believe this bird is outfitted with an ICARUS radio transmitter. A receiver is located on the International Space Station. The transmitter weighs 5 grams and is attached like a backpack with an unimpeding silicone harness around the wings. One of two wire antennas is visible trailing off to the left. The kioea breeds and nests on the western Alaska tundra and winters on tropical Pacific islands from Hawaii to Rangiroa and beyond. ICARUS tracking is an amazing tool with uses ranging from local agrarian herd tracking to following global wildlife migrations.
Transmitting
A kioea in flight along the shoreline looking for feeding opportunities is fitted with a satellite transmitter. The kioea, or bristle-thighed curlew, has a beautiful distinctively long, decurved bill used for foraging in tall grass, mud, sand, and reef flats exposed at low tide. Bristle-thighed curlews are the only shorebird known to use tools, reportedly using stones to break the eggs of albatrosses.
I believe this bird is outfitted with an ICARUS radio transmitter. A receiver is located on the International Space Station. The transmitter weighs 5 grams and is attached like a backpack with an unimpeding silicone harness around the wings. One of two wire antennas is visible trailing off to the left. The kioea breeds and nests on the western Alaska tundra and winters on tropical Pacific islands from Hawaii to Rangiroa and beyond. ICARUS tracking is an amazing tool with uses ranging from local agrarian herd tracking to following global wildlife migrations.