News: Migration

With the vernal equinox approaching, Team BirdCast welcomes back our forecast and live migration maps for the spring 2019 season!  Read more...

Data from radar & bird watchers reveal spring migration details Ithaca, NY— A new study combining data from citizen scientists and weather radar stations is providing detailed insights into spring bird migration along the Gulf of Mexico and how these journeys may be affected by climate change. Findings on the timing, location, and intensity of these bird movements are published […]  Read more...

New study finds both positive and negative impacts possible Ithaca, NY—Under future climate scenarios, changing winds may make it harder for North American birds to migrate southward in the autumn, but make it easier for them to come back north in the spring. Researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology came to this conclusion using […]  Read more...

Hurricane Michael strengthened rapidly into a major hurricane on Tuesday, and as with previous storms on which BirdCast reported, it may have dramatic impacts on local and transient bird communities and their habitats when it comes ashore and passes through the Southeastern US. Live sightings will appear on the current observations map as they are entered into eBird, but as always, for those in the path of this storm, safety first!  Read more...

Real-time sightings from your eBird checklists will appear in this post's map, providing a unique opportunity to help us understand how these storms transport birds and how birds respond to extreme disturbances in their annual cycles.  Read more...

4 Billion Birds Will Fly Through American Airspace This Fall By Carley Eschliman From the Autumn 2018 issue of Living Bird magazine. Subscribe now. Fall migration will bring 4 billion birds into the skies over the United States. That’s not a guess—it’s hard data, gleaned from the first-ever national bird count using weather radar. Cornell […]  Read more...

Researchers predict the movements of millions of birds across the United States Ithaca, N.Y. & Oxford, U.K.—September is the peak of autumn bird migration, and billions of birds are winging their way south in dramatic pulses. A new study published in the journal Science reports that scientists can now reliably predict these waves of bird migration […]  Read more...

Hurricanes and their impacts, in particular in depositing seabirds far afield from their normal haunts, represent unique opportunities to understand how animals behave in and respond to serious disturbances. Hurricane Florence is no exception.  Read more...

Doppler weather radar data—like those shown in the animation above and often featured in weather broadcasts—can tell us much more than how much rain will fall on your weekend cookout. Here at BirdCast, we turn weather radar data into information on the numbers and flight directions of birds aloft in order to expand the understanding […]  Read more...

FAQs: How does weather radar work? How do radar ornithologists remove ground clutter (nearby trees, buildings, and objects) from radar data? How do radar ornithologists remove weather systems from clouds of birds? Are there returns from aircraft on weather radar? Is all of the continental U.S. covered by radar? How is radar data converted into […]  Read more...

Thanks for all the memories! BirdCast automated forecast and live migration maps for Spring 2018 will be deactivated until 1 August 2018 - the last forecast map was published for the night of 31 May 2018, and the last live migration map will post on 15 June 2018. Please check back often for additional comments and posts on the spring 2018 season and the arrival of the farm migration maps on 1 August!  Read more...

BirdCast predicts medium to high migration traffic aloft over an extensive areas of the central US from Mexico to Canada this weekend. Let's take a look briefly at why we think this will happen, and what species will be on the move.  Read more...

A strong cold front will move through the central US and bring precipitation and northerly winds to the Gulf of Mexico region. These factors are typically associated with coastal fallouts in many different habitats. Saturday and Sunday will be the primary fallout potential in the western Gulf region, whereas Sunday and Monday will be that potential in the east Gulf region.  Read more...

In this short post we highlight tonight's migration forecast in the West. Conditions are favorable for movements from the Desert Southwest north and west along the Pacific Coast into Washington state.   Read more...

Would you like more information on ways to use and to understand new BirdCast migration monitoring tools for spring 2018? Read on!  Read more...

BirdCast tracks migration from many angles, including with interactive maps that can give us a bird’s-eye view of migration in progress. Check out arrivals of waves of Purple Martins.  Read more...

With regular arrivals of spring migrants occurring daily, or nearly so, throughout the US, Team BirdCast returns with species on the move spotlights. This week, we highlight some on-time, early and late arrivals in the BirdCast West region.   Read more...

Light, inbound trans-Gulf migration over Texas and Louisiana was visible in the Live Migration Map.  Read more...

Team BirdCast highlights some relationships between migration and weather that could explain why our migration models predict migration in certain areas and not in others. Let's take a quick look at the migration forecast for the night of 28-29 March 2018.  Read more...

For our inaugural automated migration forecast and live migration map analysis post, let's take a quick look to see how the maps compare!  Read more...