Light‐level geolocator analyses: A user's guide

2019/06/13 by Simeon Lisovski, Silke Bauer, Martins Briedis +17 · 274 citations
Environmental Science · #Avian ecology and behavior #Citizen science #Code (set theory) #Computer science #Data extraction #Data mining #Data science #Information retrieval #Key (lock) #Source code #Species Distribution and Climate Change #Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/1365-2656.13036

published in Journal of Animal Ecology 89(1), 221-236 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2019/06/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Light-level geolocator tags use ambient light recordings to estimate the whereabouts of an individual over the time it carried the device. Over the past decade, these tags have emerged as an important tool and have been used extensively for tracking animal migrations, most commonly small birds. Analysing geolocator data can be daunting to new and experienced scientists alike. Over the past decades, several methods with fundamental differences in the analytical approach have been developed to cope with the various caveats and the often complicated data. Here, we explain the concepts behind the analyses of geolocator data and provide a practical guide for the common steps encompassing most analyses - annotation of twilights, calibration, estimating and refining locations, and extraction of movement patterns - describing good practices and common pitfalls for each step. We discuss criteria for deciding whether or not geolocators can answer proposed research questions, provide guidance in choosing an appropriate analysis method and introduce key features of the newest open-source analysis tools. We provide advice for how to interpret and report results, highlighting parameters that should be reported in publications and included in data archiving. Finally, we introduce a comprehensive supplementary online manual that applies the concepts to several datasets, demonstrates the use of open-source analysis tools with step-by-step instructions and code and details our recommendations for interpreting, reporting and archiving.

Citations

• Technology on the Move: Recent and Forthcoming Innovations for Tracking Migratory Birds
• Weak effects of geolocators on small birds: A meta‐analysis controlled for phylogeny and publication bias

Cited by

• Migration routes and adult survival of the critically endangered yellow-breasted bunting Emberiza aureola
• Migration patterns and hybridization within the Asian stonechat complex in response to a major geographical barrier
• Migratory and breeding behaviour of Water Rails Rallus aquaticus in east-central Scotland revealed by geolocators
• A new westward migration route in an Asian passerine bird
• Establishing bio-logging data collections as dynamic archives of animal life on Earth
• Seasonal migration across the north-western Pacific and Indian Oceans in Swinhoe’s Storm-petrel Hydrobates monorhis
• Tracking the range restricted white-spotted Bluethroat Luscinia svecica namnetum using multi-sensor and light-level loggers
• Tracking the migration of a Bluethroat Luscinia svecica svecica from central Siberia
• Migratory connectivity and potential nonbreeding sexual segregation in Gray Vireos ( Vireo vicinior )
• Geolocators reveal variation and sex‐specific differences in the migratory strategies of a long‐distance migrant
• Conservation implications of wide-ranging year-round movement and distribution of Aleutian Island breeding Aethia cristatella (Crested Auklets)
• Multi-sensor tracking reveals the extent of nocturnal migration in landbirds
• Weak migratory connectivity, loop migration and multiple non‐breeding site use in British breeding Whinchats Saxicola rubetra
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Arctic terns from circumpolar breeding colonies share common migratory routes
• Non-breeding ecology of thick-billed murres from the only colony in the western Canadian Arctic
• So far, so good… Similar fitness consequences and overall energetic costs for short and long-distance migrants in a seabird. [europepmc]
• Lunar synchronization of daily activity patterns in a crepuscular avian insectivore. [europepmc]
• A green wave of saltmarsh productivity predicts the timing of the annual cycle in a long-distance migratory shorebird. [europepmc]
• Shorebirds wintering in Southeast Asia demonstrate trans-Himalayan flights. [europepmc]
• Carryover effects of long-distance avian migration are weaker than effects of breeding environment in a partially migratory bird. [europepmc]
• Migration ecology of western gray catbirds. [europepmc]
• Migration-tracking integrated phylogeography supports long-distance dispersal-driven divergence for a migratory bird species in the Japanese archipelago. [europepmc]
• Wind-assisted sprint migration in northern swifts. [europepmc]
• Linking migratory performance to breeding phenology and productivity in an Afro-Palearctic long-distance migrant. [europepmc]
• pamlr: A toolbox for analysing animal behaviour using pressure, acceleration, temperature, magnetic or light data in R. [europepmc]
• Migratory network reveals unique spatial-temporal migration dynamics of Dunlin subspecies along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. [europepmc]
• Diving into the vertical dimension of elasmobranch movement ecology. [europepmc]
• Potential for redistribution of post-moult habitat for Eudyptes penguins in the Southern Ocean under future climate conditions. [europepmc]
• Autumn migration tracks of Helopsaltes grasshopper-warblers from Northeast Asia support recent taxonomic assignments. [europepmc]
• Multi-sensor geolocators unveil global and local movements in an Alpine-breeding long-distance migrant. [europepmc]
• Across atoms to crossing continents: Application of similarity measures to biological location data. [europepmc]
• A synthesis of recent tools and perspectives in migratory connectivity studies. [europepmc]
• Sea ice concentration decline in an important Adélie penguin molt area. [europepmc]
• Synchrony of Bird Migration with Global Dispersal of Avian Influenza Reveals Exposed Bird Orders. [europepmc]
• Individuals departing non-breeding areas early achieve earlier breeding and higher breeding success. [europepmc]
• Seabirds reveal mercury distribution across the North Atlantic. [europepmc]
• Extreme elevational migration spurred cryptic speciation in giant hummingbirds. [europepmc]
• Seasonal migration patterns of Siberian Rubythroat (Calliope calliope) facing the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. [europepmc]
• Range-wide post- and pre-breeding migratory networks of a declining neotropical-nearctic migratory bird, the blackpoll warbler. [europepmc]
• Extreme migratory connectivity and apparent mirroring of non-breeding grounds conditions in a severely declining breeding population of an Afro-Palearctic migratory bird. [europepmc]

Related

• PIGEON: Predicting Image Geolocations
• G³: Geolocation via Guidebook Grounding
• Image-Based Geolocation Using Large Vision-Language Models
• Towards Interactive Global Geolocation Assistant
• Geolocation with Real Human Gameplay Data: A Large-Scale Dataset and Human-Like Reasoning Framework