News

  • October 1, 2018Interactive Map: Tracking Hurricane Rosa

    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.

  • September 17, 2018Research: Seasonal abundance and survival of North America’s migratory avifauna determined by weather radar.

    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…

  • September 13, 2018Research: Creating a Continental Bird Migration Forecast

    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…

  • September 13, 2018Interactive Map: Tracking the dangerous Hurricane Florence

    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.

  • August 10, 2018Weather surveillance radar: beyond meteorology

    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…

  • August 10, 2018Frequently Asked Questions

    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?…

  • June 1, 20183-day Forecast Maps return in the Fall: BirdCast breaks for summer 2018

    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!

  • April 27, 2018Spotlight on the Central US: intense spring migration traffic

    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.

  • April 13, 2018Spotlight on the Gulf Coast: Weekend Fallout Alert

    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.

  • April 9, 2018Spotlight on the West

    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.

  • April 4, 2018A Primer for New Migration Forecast Tools From BirdCast

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

  • March 29, 2018Species on the move: Purple Martins

    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.

Scientific Team

BirdCast is made possible by the participating scientists at the below institutions, and many other contributors.