OK, they’re not really backpacks, they’re solar-powered tags that let UNH researchers see where the salt marsh sparrows are going as part of preservation efforts. Sensors in the field spick up signals as the birds fly by.
NHPR has the story here.
The relationship between these sparrows and salt marshes is so significant that they are classified as an indicator species, which means that the health of the bird’s populations can provide information about the health of the entire ecosystem.
With that information, the team can then draw conclusions about the birds’ behavior at a healthy marsh: how they nest, breed and feed across the flooding cycle, for example.
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