WATLAS: high-throughput and real-time tracking of many small birds in the Dutch Wadden Sea

WATLAS, deployed in the Dutch Wadden Seaenables high-resolution, real-time tracking of hundreds of small birds simultaneously. This innovative system uses an array of receiver stations to detect and localize low-cost tags on species like red knots, sanderlings, bar-tailed godwits, and common terns with meter-scale spatial and second-scale temporal precision. Over five years (2017–2021), WATLAS revealed critical insights into bird movement, including tidal influences on space-use, significant among-individual variation in daily travel distances, and species-specific foraging patterns despite shared roosting sites. The system's high-throughput data also facilitated the construction of proximity-based social networks across multiple organizational levels. By bridging technological limitations of traditional GPS tracking, WATLAS offers a powerful tool for studying bird behavior, assessing anthropogenic impacts, and informing conservation strategies in this globally vital ecosystem.

Bijleveld, A. I., van Maarseveen, F., Denissen, B., Dekinga, A., Penning, E., Ersoy, S., Gupte, P. R., de Monte, L., ten Horn, J., Bom, R. A., Toledo, S., Nathan, R., & Beardsworth, C. E. (2022). WATLAS: high-throughput and real-time tracking of many small birds in the Dutch Wadden Sea. Animal Biotelemetry, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40317-022-00307-w