Shown in yellow are Motus receiver stations in the Northestern United States and Canada prior to 2017. Notice the coastal nature of the array.

Shown in yellow are Motus receiver stations in the Northestern United States and Canada prior to 2017. Notice the coastal nature of the array.

Prior to 2017, the biggest drawback to the Motus array had been its coastal nature and limited geographic extent. Originally designed to track seabirds, shorebirds and coastally migrating songbirds, its roughly 325 towers were largely along the Great Lakes, Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico shorelines, although some towers had been erected in the Arctic, Alaska, South America and northern Europe.  
 
Except for a few towers along the Connecticut River valley, and a small cluster in southwestern Pennsylvania, there was essentially no coverage across an enormous area in the interior Northeast, including New England and the central Appalachians — despite the fact that this mountainous region is one of the most significant migratory corridors for all species in North America. Nor did it cover the critical Piedmont and coastal plain inland of the shore itself, although banding studies suggest these are important migratory routes for many species.  
 
In 2017, our team begun to plug that geographic gap by creating a Northeastern interior Motus array—beginning with an extensive 20 station cross-state line in Pennsylvania thanks to funding provided by the Wild Resource Conservation Program (WRCP) in Pennsylvania. Through a grant awarded by the Richard King Mellon Foundation, 12 more stations were established in western PA in 2018 and 2019. At the end of 2018, the Northeast Motus Collaboration, in partnership with several state agencies and nonprofits, received a  $500,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to dramatically expand the Motus network across a five-state area. Through this grant, by the end of 2020, we will add 40 new Motus stations across Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York.

The Northeast Motus Collaboration successfully completed a line of 20 Motus receiver stations across PA in 2017; 12 stations in western PA in 2018-2019; 7 stations in northeastern PA, 8 stations in MD, and 3 stations in DE in 2019; and finally 23 additional stations in NY, NJ, MD and PA in 2020 were added in 2020.