News: Species on the Move

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...

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...

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...

Hilary's literal windfall (and precipitation!) of vagrant hurricane-driven birds is still growing, but so is the number of regularly occurring species in the region that are occurring in unusual numbers or in unusual locations associated with the passage of this system.  Read more...

Hurricane Hilary may bring a significant diversity of entrained and displaced birds to California and Nevada, with impacts as far reaching as Oregon and Idaho.  Read more...

BirdCast is ready to kickoff its fall 2023 migration season! It’s time to check out our migration tools to see what’s on the move in your area.  Read more...

Aeroecological research is more than simply studies of bird migration. Victoria Simons is studying how Tree Swallow foraging behavior relates to their usage of airspace as habitat.   Read more...

An interesting pattern of Gray-cheeked Thrush arrivals in the central US during April led the BirdCast team to investigate a potential explanation. We looked to the wind.  Read more...

The recent release of the BirdCast Migration Dashboard inspired much excitement in a broad array of team members, collaborators, colleagues, friends, family, and followers. There are many ways to apply the information you can explore with the dashboard, but one intriguing possibility comes to us from Laura Cook in this post about tracking two Hermit Thrushes.  Read more...

BirdCast is deeply disturbed by the mass bird collision events that occurred earlier this week in Manhattan. Light pollution and poor flying conditions on a night of intense migration contributed to these events. There are essentials actions we can take to prevent these types of events: turning off all non-essential lights, especially during migration periods, to reduce birds' attraction to and disorientation by them, and making buildings bird friendly. See our recommendations for turning off lights below.  Read more...

Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana as a category 4 storm, and its remnants continue to move north and east through the US. Numerous seabirds entrained and displaced by this storm are occurring far inland, and our live map of these observations highlights their distributions.  Read more...

Southern California affords some excellent opportunities to see continuing diurnal migration of typically nocturnal migrants. Kicking off in Spring 2021, the Bear Divide Migration Count by the Moore Lab of Zoology at Occidental College is one of these opportunities!  Read more...

During the week of April 19-25, several weather events set up excellent conditions for observing visible migration, mostly of wood-warblers, including this Worm-eating Warbler, migrating along Florida’s east coast. Our colleague Jacob Drucker reports on his observations on the ground!  Read more...

Tanagers bring the most incredible splashes of color to spring migration across the continent. Check out the movements of three migratory species over the last month.  Read more...

An evolving frontal boundary will make for some interesting conditions along the Atlantic Seaboard to transport birds farther afield than they might typically travel in the coming 72 hours.  Read more...

Continuing frontal boundaries and associated unstable weather conditions in the Gulf of Mexico are going to make for some interesting migration patterns in the coming week.  Read more...

On Saturday 10 April, a frontal boundary is forecast to move into the Gulf of Mexico region. Beginning midday Saturday, birds may begin concentrating in coastal habitats, particularly in the Upper Texas and southwestern Louisiana coasts; but events may be quite complex, because forecasts suggest that the front will stall.  Read more...

Easterly winds are blowing in the North Atlantic, and they may bring some surprise visitors to northeastern North America.  Read more...

Winter Storm Xylia is forecast to bring a blast of late winter to the Central Rockies and northern Great Plains this weekend and early next week. Birds will certainly respond to this storm, especially those of more open terrestrial habitats, by seeking more favorable locations free of snow if possible.  Read more...