News

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.

Enter the lion! A potentially substantial winter storm is brewing, Saturn, and forecasts suggest it will leave its mark across a wide swath of the northern US. We focus on the NE US in this post, because of the continuing…

In August of 2017, millions peered through protective eyewear at the solar eclipse—the first total eclipse visible in the continental United States in nearly 40 years. During the event, researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the University of Oxford watched radar to observe the behavior of birds and insects. Their findings have been published in Biology Letters.

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!

With the total solar eclipse of 8 April 2024 close at hand, we are highlighting a previous BirdCast new item describing behaviors observed during the 21 August 2017 total solar eclipse. See below to review the original post to get reacquainted with some of the behaviors we expect to see and, so, too, to get excited about observing behaviors on 8 April!

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!

Ithaca, NY—An estimated 600 million birds die from building collisions every year in the United States. Scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have published new research highlighting artificial light at night as a contributing factor. They’ve ranked metropolitan areas where,…

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…

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…

As you know, one of the main methods we use to study birds here at BirdCast is radar. Radar has been used to study animal movements for a long time, but recent advances has greatly increased its use and lead…

ANN ARBOR—Birds that produce faint chirps called flight calls during nighttime migration collide with illuminated buildings much more often than closely related species that don’t produce such calls, according to a new analysis of a 40-year record of thousands of…

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…