News: Forecast and Analysis

A week of light to moderate movements in the southern half of the West featured Red-necked Grebe, Mew Gull, Hermit Thrush, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Townsend's Warbler, and White-crowned Sparrow, while moderate to heavy flights in the East, particularly in the Upper Midwest, Appalachians, and central Plains, featured Cooper's Hawk, American Coot, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Eastern Towhee, Fox Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, and White-crowned Sparrow.  Read more...

Migration events over the last week were respectable in size, but we did not see the widespread, monster movements that often grace this time of season. For example, in our paper characterizing nocturnal movements in the northeastern US, the largest movements we reported occurred during the first week of October. Remember, migration traffic rate is defined as the number of birds from 0-3,000 meters above radar stations moving hourly over a 1 km line drawn on the ground.  Read more...

Favorable conditions begin and end the period in the West where light to moderate flights will feature Common Loon, Gadwall, Turkey Vulture, Ruby-crownd Kinglet, Yellow Warbler, and Lincoln's Sparrow, while the non coastal East sees an extended period of favorable conditions bring moderate to heavy flights featuring Sharp-shinned Hawk, Northern Flicker, Blue-headed Vireo, Nashville Warbler, Pine Warbler, Palm Warbler, Lincoln's Sparrow, and Western Meadowlark.  Read more...

Light to moderate flights in the West, particularly the northern extents, featured American Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, Northern Flicker, Varied Thrush, Golden-crowned Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco, while the East saw moderate to very heavy flights from the middle of the period that featured Tundra Swan, Northern Pintail, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Lincoln's Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco.  Read more...

Once again, Team BirdCast is excited to bring you reports of migration traffic rates in the northeast United States, calculated from a completely automated pipeline of algorithms. The images you see in Traffic Reports present the migration traffic rate (MTR), direction of bird movement, and speed of bird movement. See our first report or scientific paper (currently a […]  Read more...

Team BirdCast is excited to debut daily reports of migration traffic rates in the northeast United States. Each night, from local sunset to local sunrise in the Eastern time zone, a BirdCast server downloads radar data from 16 stations in the northeastern US. These data are composed of every scan of the atmosphere made by these radars during this time […]  Read more...

NOTE: Check out our new Traffic Reports, above! Continental Summary The West will see light to moderate flights, particularly in more northern reaches, featuring Eared Grebe, Cooper’s Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Say’s Phoebe, Townsend’s Warbler, Brewer’s Blackbird, and Lincoln’s Sparrow, while moderate to very heavy mid to late week flights featuring Turkey Vulture, Wilson’s Snipe, Northern Flicker, Blue Jay, Black-and-white […]  Read more...

Moderate and heavy flights were the norm this week for many areas of the country, featuring Greater White-fronted Goose, Ring-necked Duck, Say's Phoebe, Varied Thrush, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Fox Sparrow, and Golden-crowned Sparrow in the West and American Bittern, Northern Flicker, Eastern Phoebe, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Nashville Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Palm Warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and White-crowned Sparrow in the East.  Read more...

A patchwork of favorable conditions across northern reaches of the West, primarily, brings light to moderate flights featuring Pectoral Sandpiper, Orange-crowned Warbler, a suite of vagrant eastern warblers, Brewer’s Blackbird, and Savannah Sparrow, while a weekend cold front kicks off moderate to very heavy flights followed later in the period by another similarly intense pulse, both featuring Turkey Vulture, Broad-winged Hawk, Eastern Phoebe, Blue-headed Vireo, Blue Jay, Swainson’s Thrush, Northern Parula, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, and Clay-colored Sparrow.  Read more...

A busy week of migration featured light to moderate flights across much of the West, featuring Cackling Goose, Dunlin, Black Tern, Vaux's Swift, Tree Swallow, Black-headed Grosbeak and Fox Sparrow, and heavy flights to begin and end the period in the East, featuring some huge movements of American Redstart among other species such as Broad-winged Hawk, Chimney Swift, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, American Pipit, Palm Warbler, Northern Parula and White-crowned Sparrow.  Read more...

A week featuring Turkey Vulture, Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Common Yellowthroat, Green-tailed Towhee, and Vesper Sparrow in light to moderate movements to begin and end the period are in store for the West, while moderate to heavy flights featuring Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Acadian Flycatcher, Blue-headed Vireo, Philadelphia Vireo, Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Tennessee Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, American Redstart, Summer Tanager, and Baltimore Oriole begin and end the period in the East.  Read more...

A big week for migration saw Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Green-tailed Towhee, White-crowned Sparrow, and Golden-crowned Sparrow migrate in light to moderate flights across the West and Blue-winged Teal, Bald Eagle, Swainson's Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Nashville Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Palm Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, and Baltimore Oriole moving in moderate to heavy flights in the East.  Read more...

More favorable conditions with persist across the West this week, with light to moderate flights featuring Killdeer, Warbling Vireo, Swainson's Thrush, MacGillivray's Warbler, and Western Tanager, while the East experiences increasingly favorable conditions building to spawn moderate to heavy flights featuring Great Egret, Swainson's Hawk, Red-eyed Vireo, Black-and-white Warbler, Yellow Warbler, and Chestnut-sided Warbler, by week’s end.  Read more...

Scattered light to moderate flights of Vaux's Swift, Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Western Tanager, Black-throated Gray Warbler, and Orange-crowned Warbler took flight in the West this week, while moderate flights of Red-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Swainson's Thrush, Veery, Gray Catbird, Magnolia Warbler, and Scarlet Tanager became increasingly widespread by the end of the week in the East.  Read more...

Generally unfavorable migration conditions prevail in the West this week, with those pulses of movements that occur featuring Green Heron, Least Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Common Yellowthroat, and Clay-colored Sparrow, while the East sees a return to more summer like conditions until more favorable conditions and associated moderate flights of Common Nighthawk, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue-winged Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, and Chipping Sparrow come after the middle of the week.  Read more...

Moderate and some locally heavy migration was heavily featured across the continent during the past week, with the West seeing pulses of Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Solitary Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, and Orange-crowned Warbler among other migrants and the East seeing movements including Piping Plover, Solitary Sandpiper, Caspian Tern, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, and Baltimore Oriole.  Read more...

Favorable conditions early in the period will bring moderate movements featuring Northern Pintail, Warbling Vireo, Swainson's Thrush, Wilson's Warbler, and Western Tanager in parts of the West, particularly the Pacific Northwest, while a passing cold front early in the week will bring moderate to locally heavy movements of Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Veery, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Blackburnian Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak in its wake before southerly flow slows down the system in the East.  Read more...

Scattered light to moderate movements featuring American Wigeon, Sanderling, Yellow Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, and Yellow-headed Blackbird highlighted the week in the West, while Black-bellied Plover, Wilson's Phalarope, Common Nighthawk, Least Flycatcher, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Yellow Warbler, and Wilson's Warbler composed generally light early period and increasing moderate and even isolated heavy later period movements in the East.  Read more...

A brief pulse of light to moderate flights that will include American Avocet, Marbled Godwit, Western Sandpiper, Western Kingbird, Barn Swallow, Black-headed Grosbeak, and Bullock's Oriole on either end of the forecast period highlight otherwise unfavorable conditions across the West, while a relatively weak front drifts east mid week bringing light to moderate flights of Osprey, Greater Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Purple Martin, and Tree Swallow first to the northern Plains, then the Great Lakes, and finally the Appalachians and portions of the eastern seaboard.  Read more...

All but the latest of migrants already passed, this week saw in the primarily scattered light and highly localized moderate movements across the West, with late migrants featuring Olive-sided Flycatcher, Willow Flycatcher, Cedar Waxwing, and Townsend's Warbler, while the East saw its light to moderate flights concentrated in the center of the country and featuring primarily departures of Least Sandpiper, White-rumped Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Cedar Waxwing, Swainson's Thrush, Tennessee Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler.  Read more...