Publications

Detecting Bird Migration with Radar

Dokter, Adriaan M., Felix Liechti, Herbert Stark, Laurent Delobbe, Pierre Tabary, and Iwan Holleman. “Bird migration flight altitudes studied by a network of operational weather radars.” Journal of the Royal Society Interface 8, no. 54 (2011): 30-43.

Dokter, Adriaan M., Peter Desmet, Jurriaan H. Spaaks, Stijn van Hoey, Lourens Veen, Liesbeth Verlinden, Cecilia Nilsson et al. “bioRad: biological analysis and visualization of weather radar data.” Ecography 42, no. 5 (2019): 852-860.

Farnsworth, Andrew, Benjamin M. Van Doren, Wesley M. Hochachka, Daniel Sheldon, Kevin Winner, Jed Irvine, Jeffrey Geevarghese, and Steve Kelling. “A characterization of autumn nocturnal migration detected by weather surveillance radars in the northeastern USA.” Ecological Applications 26, no. 3 (2016): 752-770.

Giuntini, S., C. S. Burt, A. L. Abbott, C. A. Adams, M. C. T. D. Belotti, Y. Deng, M. F. Jimenez, J. F. Kelly, S. Maji, M. Nash-Martin, S. Simon, D. Sheldon, and K. G. Horton. 2025. Structuring the skies: Diel dynamics of migratory animal movement in the lower atmosphere. Ecology 106:e70247.

Lin, Tsung‐Yu, Kevin Winner, Garrett Bernstein, Abhay Mittal, Adriaan M. Dokter, Kyle G. Horton, Cecilia Nilsson et al. “MistNet: Measuring historical bird migration in the US using archived weather radar data and convolutional neural networks.” Methods in Ecology and Evolution 10, no. 11 (2019): 1908-1922.

Sheldon, D., Farnsworth, A., Irvine, J., Van Doren, B., Webb, K., Dietterich, T., & Kelling, S. (2013, June). Approximate Bayesian inference for reconstructing velocities of migrating birds from weather radar. In Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 1334-1340).

Shamoun-Baranes, J., Farnsworth, A., Aelterman, B., Alves, J.A., Azijn, K., Bernstein, G., Branco, S., Desmet, P., Dokter, A.M., Horton, K. and Kelling, S., 2016. Innovative visualizations shed light on avian nocturnal migration. PloS one, 11(8), p.e0160106.

Migration Forecasts and Alerts

Van Doren, Benjamin M., and Kyle G. Horton. “A continental system for forecasting bird migration.” Science 361.6407 (2018): 1115-1118. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aat7526

Horton, Kyle G., Benjamin M. Van Doren, Heidi J. Albers, Andrew Farnsworth, and Daniel Sheldon. “Near‐term ecological forecasting for dynamic aeroconservation of migratory birds.” Conservation Biology 35, no. 6 (2021): 1777-1786.

Jimenez, M. F., A. Khalighifar, C. S. Burt, C. A. Black, M. Leόn-Corwin, A. S. Fox, H. C. Jenkins-Smith, C. L. Silva, G. E. Trankina, J. F. Kelly, and K. G. Horton. 2025. Integrating multi-scale terrestrial and atmospheric predictors enhances nocturnal bird migration forecasts. Ornithological Applications 127:1–14.

Collisions and Attraction to Light

Burt, Carolyn S., Jeffrey F. Kelly, Grace E. Trankina, Carol L. Silva, Ali Khalighifar, Hank C. Jenkins-Smith, Andrew S. Fox, Kurt M. Fristrup, and Kyle G. Horton. “The effects of light pollution on migratory animal behavior.” Trends in ecology & evolution 38, no. 4 (2023): 355-368.

Chen, K., Kross, S.M., Parkins, K., Seewagen, C., Farnsworth, A. and Van Doren, B.M., 2024. Heavy migration traffic and bad weather are a dangerous combination: Bird collisions in New York City. Journal of Applied Ecology, 61(4), pp.784-796.

Elmore, J.A., Riding, C.S., Horton, K.G., O’Connell, T.J., Farnsworth, A. and Loss, S.R., 2021. Predicting bird‐window collisions with weather radar. Journal of Applied Ecology, 58(8), pp.1593-1601.

Horton, Kyle G., Cecilia Nilsson, Benjamin M. Van Doren, Frank A. La Sorte, Adriaan M. Dokter, and Andrew Farnsworth. “Bright lights in the big cities: migratory birds’ exposure to artificial light.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 17, no. 4 (2019): 209-214.

Horton, Kyle G., Jeffrey J. Buler, Sharolyn J. Anderson, Carolyn S. Burt, Amy C. Collins, Adriaan M. Dokter, Fengyi Guo, Daniel Sheldon, Monika Anna Tomaszewska, and Geoffrey M. Henebry. “Artificial light at night is a top predictor of bird migration stopover density.” Nature Communications 14, no. 1 (2023): 7446.

La Sorte, F.A., Fink, D., Buler, J.J., Farnsworth, A. and Cabrera‐Cruz, S.A., 2017. Seasonal associations with urban light pollution for nocturnally migrating bird populations. Global Change Biology, 23(11), pp.4609-4619.

Loss, Scott R., Binbin V. Li, Lisa C. Horn, Michael R. Mesure, Lei Zhu, Timothy G. Brys, Adriaan M. Dokter et al. “Citizen science to address the global issue of bird–window collisions.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 21, no. 9 (2023): 418-427.

Nilsson, C., La Sorte, F.A., Dokter, A., Horton, K., Van Doren, B.M., Kolodzinski, J.J., Shamoun‐Baranes, J. and Farnsworth, A., 2021. Bird strikes at commercial airports explained by citizen science and weather radar data. Journal of Applied Ecology, 58(10), pp.2029-2039.

Van Doren, Benjamin M., Kyle G. Horton, Adriaan M. Dokter, Holger Klinck, Susan B. Elbin, and Andrew Farnsworth. “High-intensity urban light installation dramatically alters nocturnal bird migration.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 42 (2017): 11175-11180.

Van Doren, Benjamin M., David E. Willard, Mary Hennen, Kyle G. Horton, Erica F. Stuber, Daniel Sheldon, Ashwin H. Sivakumar, Julia Wang, Andrew Farnsworth, and Benjamin M. Winger. “Drivers of fatal bird collisions in an urban center.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 24 (2021): e2101666118.

Migration Biology / Radar Aeroecology

Abbott, A.L., Deng, Y., Badwey, K., Farnsworth, A. and Horton, K.G., 2023. Inbound arrivals: using weather surveillance radar to quantify the diurnal timing of spring trans‐Gulf bird migration. Ecography, 2023(8), p.e06644.

Bauer, S., Shamoun‐Baranes, J., Nilsson, C., Farnsworth, A., Kelly, J.F., Reynolds, D.R., Dokter, A.M., Krauel, J.F., Petterson, L.B., Horton, K.G. and Chapman, J.W., 2019. The grand challenges of migration ecology that radar aeroecology can help answer. Ecography, 42(5), pp.861-875.

Clipp, H.L., Cohen, E.B., Smolinsky, J.A., Horton, K.G., Farnsworth, A. and Buler, J.J., 2020. Broad-scale weather patterns encountered during flight influence landbird stopover distributions. Remote Sensing, 12(3), p.565.

Cohen, E.B., Barrow Jr, W.C., Buler, J.J., Deppe, J.L., Farnsworth, A., Marra, P.P., McWilliams, S.R., Mehlman, D.W., Wilson, R.R., Woodrey, M.S. and Moore, F.R., 2017. How do en route events around the Gulf of Mexico influence migratory landbird populations?. The Condor: Ornithological Applications, 119(2), pp.327-343.

Cohen, E.B., Horton, K.G., Marra, P.P., Clipp, H.L., Farnsworth, A., Smolinsky, J.A., Sheldon, D. and Buler, J.J., 2021. A place to land: spatiotemporal drivers of stopover habitat use by migrating birds. Ecology Letters, 24(1), pp.38-49.

Curley, S.R., Farnsworth, A., White, T.P., Shamoun‐Baranes, J. and Dokter, A.M., 2025. Differences between terrestrial and offshore bird migration: Implications for offshore wind energy. Journal of Applied Ecology, 62(10), pp.2800-2813.

Dokter, Adriaan M., Andrew Farnsworth, Daniel Fink, Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, Wesley M. Hochachka, Frank A. La Sorte, Orin J. Robinson, Kenneth V. Rosenberg, and Steve Kelling. “Seasonal abundance and survival of North America’s migratory avifauna determined by weather radar.” Nature ecology & evolution 2, no. 10 (2018): 1603-1609.

Horton, K.G., Van Doren, B.M., Stepanian, P.M., Farnsworth, A. and Kelly, J.F., 2016. Where in the air? Aerial habitat use of nocturnally migrating birds. Biology letters, 12(11), p.20160591.

Horton, K.G., Van Doren, B.M., Stepanian, P.M., Farnsworth, A. and Kelly, J.F., 2016. Seasonal differences in landbird migration strategies. The Auk: Ornithological Advances, 133(4), pp.761-769.

Horton, K.G., Van Doren, B.M., Stepanian, P.M., Hochachka, W.M., Farnsworth, A. and Kelly, J.F., 2016. Nocturnally migrating songbirds drift when they can and compensate when they must. Scientific reports, 6(1), p.21249.

Horton, K.G., Van Doren, B.M., La Sorte, F.A., Fink, D., Sheldon, D., Farnsworth, A. and Kelly, J.F., 2018. Navigating north: how body mass and winds shape avian flight behaviours across a North American migratory flyway. Ecology Letters, 21(7), pp.1055-1064.

Horton, K.G., Van Doren, B.M., La Sorte, F.A., Cohen, E.B., Clipp, H.L., Buler, J.J., Fink, D., Kelly, J.F. and Farnsworth, A., 2019. Holding steady: Little change in intensity or timing of bird migration over the Gulf of Mexico. Global Change Biology, 25(3), pp.1106-1118.

Horton, Kyle G., Frank A. La Sorte, Daniel Sheldon, Tsung-Yu Lin, Kevin Winner, Garrett Bernstein, Subhransu Maji, Wesley M. Hochachka, and Andrew Farnsworth. “Phenology of nocturnal avian migration has shifted at the continental scale.” Nature climate change 10, no. 1 (2020): 63-68.

La Sorte, F.A., Hochachka, W.M., Farnsworth, A., Sheldon, D., Fink, D., Geevarghese, J., Winner, K., Van Doren, B.M. and Kelling, S., 2015. Migration timing and its determinants for nocturnal migratory birds during autumn migration. Journal of Animal Ecology, 84(5), pp.1202-1212.

La Sorte, F.A., Hochachka, W.M., Farnsworth, A., Sheldon, D., Van Doren, B.M., Fink, D. and Kelling, S., 2015. Seasonal changes in the altitudinal distribution of nocturnally migrating birds during autumn migration. Royal Society Open Science, 2(12), p.150347.

Newcombe, P.B., Nilsson, C., Lin, T.Y., Winner, K., Bernstein, G., Maji, S., Sheldon, D., Farnsworth, A. and Horton, K.G., 2019. Migratory flight on the Pacific Flyway: strategies and tendencies of wind drift compensation. Biology letters, 15(9), p.20190383.

Nilsson, C., Horton, K.G., Dokter, A.M., Van Doren, B.M. and Farnsworth, A., 2018. Aeroecology of a solar eclipse. Biology letters, 14(11), p.20180485.

Nilsson, C., Dokter, A., Bauer, S., Horton, K.G. and Farnsworth, A., 2023. Advances in weather radar monitoring of bird movement. In Advances in Weather Radar. Volume 3:: Emerging applications (pp. 241-280). Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Nussbaumer, R., Van Doren, B.M., Hochachka, W.M., Farnsworth, A., La Sorte, F.A., Johnston, A. and Dokter, A.M., 2024. Nocturnal avian migration drives high daily turnover but limited change in abundance on the ground. Ecography, 2024(9), p.e07107.

Rosenberg, Kenneth V., Adriaan M. Dokter, Peter J. Blancher, John R. Sauer, Adam C. Smith, Paul A. Smith, Jessica C. Stanton et al. “Decline of the North American avifauna.” Science 366, no. 6461 (2019): 120-124.

Shamoun-Baranes, J., Bauer, S., Chapman, J.W., Desmet, P., Dokter, A.M., Farnsworth, A., van Gasteren, H., Haest, B., Koistinen, J., Kranstauber, B. and Liechti, F., 2022. Meteorological data policies needed to support biodiversity monitoring with weather radar. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 103(4), pp.E1234-E1242.

Shi, X., Soderholm, J., Chapman, J.W., Meade, J., Farnsworth, A., Dokter, A.M. and Fuller, R.A., 2024. Distinctive and highly variable bird migration system revealed in Eastern Australia. Current Biology, 34(22), pp.5359-5365.

Van Doren, B.M., Sheldon, D., Geevarghese, J., Hochachka, W.M. and Farnsworth, A., 2015. Autumn morning flights of migrant songbirds in the northeastern United States are linked to nocturnal migration and winds aloft. The Auk: Ornithological Advances, 132(1), pp.105-118.

Van Doren, B.M., Horton, K.G., Stepanian, P.M., Mizrahi, D.S. and Farnsworth, A., 2016. Wind drift explains the reoriented morning flights of songbirds. Behavioral Ecology, 27(4), pp.1122-1131.