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Widespread light to moderate movements dominated the first half of the forecast period in the West and featured Cackling Goose, Greater White-fronted Goose, Dunlin, Varied Thrush, Hermit Thrush, American Pipit, Yellow-rumped Warbler and Palm Warbler, Golden-crowned Sparrow, while pulses of moderate to very heavy flights graced the East and featured Pied-billed Grebe, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Sprague’s Pipit, Orange-crowned Warbler, Rusty Blackbird, Brewer’s Blackbird, White-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco.

Team BirdCast would like to highlight one of the more unfortunate aspects of the study of nocturnal bird migration. Bird mortality at and near areas of strong artificial illumination has been well documented at numerous locations around the world with the spread of electricity…

Favorable conditions for widespread light to moderate migration featuring Greater White-fronted Goose, Northern Shoveler, Eared Grebe, Red-tailed Hawk, Townsend’s Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and White-crowned Sparrow come to the West during the first half of the forecast period, while the East experiences several bouts of favorable migration conditions with moderate to locally very heavy flights of Pied-billed Grebe, Turkey Vulture, Franklin’s Gull, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Gray Catbird, Ovenbird, Tennessee Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and White-throated Sparrow.

Moderate to heavy movements were the norm for the East this period, featuring Sharp-shinned Hawk, Merlin, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Swainson’s Thrush, Ruby-crownd Kinglet, Rusty Blackbird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Harris’s Sparrow, and Nelson’s Sparrow, while the West experienced moderate movements primarily early in the forecast period that featured Cackling Goose, Greater White-fronted Goose, Hooded Merganser, Dunlin, Herring Gull, Varied Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Golden-crowned Sparrow.

Marginal and locally favorable migration conditions early in the period eventually yield to slightly more widespread favorable migration conditions, featuring Northern Shoveler, Eared Grebe, Belted Kingfisher, Orange-crowned Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, Savannah Sparrow, and White-crowned Sparrow in the West and Bald Eagle, Chimney Swift, Northern Flicker, Merlin, Blue-headed Vireo, White-eyed Vireo, Magnolia Warbler, Pine Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, and Wilson’s Warbler in the East.

Moderate and even locally heavy flights featuring Sandhill Crane, Dunlin, Merlin, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, American Pipit, White-crowned Sparrow, and Golden-crowned Sparrow punctuated this period in the West, while moderate to heavy flights of Broad-winged Hawk, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Magnolia Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Palm Warbler, Lincoln’s Sparrow, and Purple Finch occurred in the East following the passage of a significant cold front.

For those in the greater New York City metropolitan area, September 11th 2016 brought the return of the Tribute in Light Memorial. The powerful, side-by-side beams of light aimed skyward were, first and foremost, a somber tribute to lives lost on September…

Welcome to this installment of BirdCast Traffic Reports, posts describing northeastern US nocturnal bird migration traffic rates, as calculated from a completely automated pipeline of algorithms. The images you see in Traffic Reports present the migration traffic rate (MTR), direction…

Favorable conditions for moderate movements featuring Northern Shoveler, Eared Grebe, Belted Kingfisher, Warbling Vireo, Orange-crowned Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, and Savannah Sparrow highlight the beginning and end of the work week in the West, while the East experiences two pulses of moderate to heavy flights over the weekend and in the middle of the work week featuring Blue-winged Teal, Northern Flicker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, White-eyed Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, American Redstart, and Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Moderate to heavy flights were peppered across the nation and featured Sharp-shinned Hawk, Veery, Swainson’s Thrush, Northern Parula, Orange-crowned Warbler, Mourning Warbler, Fox Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco during this past forecast period, with more widespread and regional movements generally limited by a few extreme weather events in the Desert Southwest and the Atlantic Seaboard.

Marginal migration conditions begin the period, give way to more widespread flights to end the week in the West, and feature Northern Shoveler, Killdeer, Belted Kingfisher, Yellow Warbler, MacGillivray’s Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Savannah Sparrow, and Western Tanager, while favorable conditions kicking off the period in the East in many areas of the East, featuring Blue-winged Teal, Bald Eagle, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Merlin, Least Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, American Redstart, Black-and-white Warbler, and Magnolia Warbler, give way to increasingly unfavorable conditions in part due to a decaying Hermine.

A busy week of migration across the nation featured light to moderate movements in the West and moderate to heavy flights in the East, with Northern Pintail, Caspian Tern, Swanson’s Thrush, Tennessee Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, and Lincoln’s Sparrow on the move.