Purple Martin migration

This web page follows two Purple Martins, Elise and Finn, as they migrate from Oregon to Brazil. The birds were fitted with CTT BluBird tags on July 21/22, 2026. These tags connect with nearby cellphones, thus allowing the birds to be tracked. Finn (tagged in Florence) and Elise (tagged in Waldport) began their migrations on August 19 and 20, respectively.
The photo on the right shows Elise with her backpack, weighing in at 1 gram. Click to expand it.
Before we get onto the tracking, watch and listen to these amazing birds in this short video.
When they were tagged, Elise (red track) and Finn (blue track) still had nestlings to feed. Even after their babies had fledged, they stayed around their nest boxes for a while.
Migration tracks (August 18 to September 15). Note what direct lines the birds took on this leg of the trip.
After the first leg of their migration, about 1500 miles, the birds took a break. Starting on August 28, they spent five weeks (and counting) crisscrossing a small area north of Mazatlán.
After 5 weeks of R and R, Finn set off again on October 4. Elise followed later. The button shows the most recent week of data on October 8. Elise has not been detected for over 2 days now. Where is she?
On October 8, Hurricane Simon is tracking straight for Elise's last known location, shown as x in the screenshot. Get out of the way Elise!
October 12: Elise hasn't reported in for six days now. According to CTT, the most likely reason is a broken antenna on her tracker. The good news is that Finn is speeding ahead. He has left Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador and is most of the way through Nicaragua. Costa Rica lies just ahead. 
October 13: Finn is through Costa Rica and into Panama.