News

Hurricane Milton is a powerful and very dangerous storm. Birds have been reported traveling in its eye, and as the storm approaches landfall, bioscattered is visible in proximity to the eye of the storm.  Read more...

Hurricane Helene is a dangerous storm predicted to make landfall on Thursday afternoon eastern time in the Florida Panhandle. Its circulation will entrain pelagic birds, displace nearshore species, and down overland migrants in many areas of the southeast and probably as far north as Tennessee and maybe even Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. We are following the progress of the storm and posting observations here.  Read more...

Keep your eyes open for Northern Wheatear in northeastern North American in the coming days - go birding and help make us look good by documenting this species! Time of year and prevailing weather appear to be aligning to warrant us donning our prediction hats!  Read more...

As a reminder to what the team is working on here at BirdCast, we return to a previous post we wrote. With spring soon arriving and preparations for migration underway, here is a primer on what we do. We turn weather radar data into information on the numbers and flight directions of birds aloft in order to expand the understanding of migratory bird movement. After several years (and hundreds of posts) describing migration, species on the move, and unique migration events, we want you to have a better understanding of what happens at BirdCast. Here is a brief overview and a behind-the-scenes look at the ways we apply radar data to study bird migration.  Read more...

Francine made landfall in Louisiana, now making its way north along the lower Mississippi River valley. Its circulation has entrained some pelagic birds, displaced some nearshore species, and downed overland migrants.  Read more...

Debby arrived to Florida, meandered its way into the Carolina Bight, made landfall in the Carolinas, and is now rapidly speeding toward the northeastern portions of the continent. This storm, though not powerful in terms of winds, has produced large amounts of precipitation in its path and its wake. It's also entrained some pelagic birds, displaced some nearshore species, and downed overland migrants.  Read more...

Spring migration is in full swing, and knowing when peak migration will occur in your area is valuable information! Here we provide a sortable table of peak periods of spring bird migration for the largest cities by human population size in the contiguous US.  Read more...

BirdCast will monitor ‘live’ the behavior of birds and insects during the total eclipse today. BirdCast’s ‘live migration maps’ will be enabled all day, and we have tuned the sensitivity to display the day-time activity of birds and insects combined. The eclipse display, the thumbnail you see to the right, will be active from 1pm to 5pm today.  Read more...

The BirdCast team will be reposting two accounts originally written about the August 2017 eclipse. This is the first of these posts, detailing reports of animal behaviors, which we hope will get you excited about observing animal behaviors on 8 April 2024!  Read more...

The BirdCast team is reposting two accounts originally written about the August 2017 eclipse. This is the second of these posts, detailing results from our 2018 publication using radar to study biological activity in the air during the eclipse ... with radar!  Read more...

Migration intensity goes off the charts - the BILLION bird barrier is shattered!  Read more...

The past week saw another movement above the half a billion mark, with continued high intensity flights predicted for 16-17 October. Let's get those lights out, especially in the areas with red alerts.  Read more...

In recent days we've hit the highest highs and lowest lows of this migration season. Here, we speak briefly about the last week's events and highlight the upcoming movements and action alerts for the next three days.  Read more...

The remnants of Philippe, a long lived hurricane, tropical storm and depression, and post tropical cyclone, are coming ashore in northern New England and the Canadian Maritimes.  Read more...

Large numbers of birds died in collisions with glass and structures while major migration was occurring in the Chicago area on the night of 4-5 October 2023. Turn off your lights, make your windows bird friendly!  Read more...

The BirdCast team has a growing number of friends and family members, and for today's post, we introduce Diya Balagopal, a high school sophomore from Frisco, Texas. During the month of October, we will highlight Lights Out alert forecasts to support bird conservation by reducing nighttime lighting during migration season. The small act of turning off lights can make a big difference for protecting nocturnally migrating birds!  Read more...

Tropical Storm Ophelia made landfall this morning in North Carolina, and, with safety first we are tracking observations of storm-driven birds reported in the wake of its passage.  Read more...

Hurricane Lee is making its way toward Nova Scotia, with landfall predicted on Saturday midday. With safety first above all, the BirdCast team highlights an observation map and some additional predictions about species that might be entrained and displaced by this storm.  Read more...

For those watching the arrival of Hurricane Lee, the BirdCast team though it might be useful to see a map of some of the species presently in the region predicted to experience impacts from Lee in the very near future.  Read more...

An incredible far-flung array of American Flamingo observations highlight the late summer birding scene in eastern North America this week, perhaps with particular relevance to the recent passage of Hurricane Idalia.  Read more...