Researchers released Oregon monarchs wearing solar-powered tags
At Blue Heron Park in Phoenix, Oregon, a crowd watched 22 tagged butterflies lift off on a migration people can follow by phone.
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Kids and adults gathered at Blue Heron Park in Phoenix, Oregon, to watch monarch butterflies leave with tiny solar tags on their backs. Jefferson Public Radio reported on September 29, 2026, that Washington State University entomologist David James fitted 22 butterflies that morning, September 17. The transmitters, made by Cellular Tracking Technologies, weigh 60 milligrams, about a tenth of an adult monarch's weight, and phones can pick up the signal through the Project Monarch app.
The tags are already drawing a route. One butterfly released in Elkton was detected a day later about 95 miles away, near Gold Beach. Robert Coffan of Southern Oregon Monarch Advocates called that hop a record for the project. James had also tagged monarchs this year in Portland, Bend, Brookings, Ashland, and Klamath Falls, and about 100 more were released in Idaho earlier in the month. Roughly 200 people helped pay for the tags by adopting a butterfly.
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