News

When birders in Cape May awoke on Monday morning, an interesting pattern was emerging (interesting is the norm in Cape May!). Numerous observers reported that numbers of migrants had arrived during and after the night and were still coming ashore from the Atlantic Ocean. The first real pulse of arrivals of this spring for a number of species had clearly occurred in Cape May. The combination of on the ground reports from eBird, nightly northeastern US radar data processing with BirdCast algorithms, and the excitement of spring arrivals inspired Team BirdCast to look a bit more closely at the events leading up to this movement.

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 of bird movement, and…

Favorable migration conditions in the latter half of the period for the West will bring extensive light to moderate movements of Spotted Sandpiper, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Dusky Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, MacGillivray’ Warbler, Lark Bunting, Clay-colored Sparrow, and Chipping Sparrow, while a highly variable period for weather in the East will bring similarly variable and patchily distributed moderate to heavy movements featuring Least Sandpiper, Forster’s Tern, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Acadian Flycatcher, Wood Thrush, Swainson’s Thrush, Golden-winged Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, and Baltimore Oriole.

Light to moderate flights, primarily in the Desert Southwest and the eastern Rockies, were the highlights of the week in the West and featured Wilson’s Phalarope, Vaux’s Swift, Western Wood-Pewee, Hammond’s Flycatcher, Brown-crested Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Yellow Warbler, Hermit Warbler, Summer Tanager, Western Tanager, and Lark Sparrow, while moderate to heavy flights featuring Mississippi Kite, Willet, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Western Kingbird, Gray Catbird, Bay-breasted Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak, Dickcissel, and Baltimore Oriole were extensive in many areas of the East.

Team BirdCast has been experimenting with ways to detect changes in bird distributions as they are occurring. With the help of two talented Cornell undergraduates, Alex Wiebe and Benjamin Van Doren, who are leading the charge, we introduce the BirdCast…

The most favorable migration conditions in the West bring light to moderate movements of Vaux’s Swift, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Western Kingbird, Bank Swallow, Virginia’s Warbler, Hermit Warbler, Lazuli Bunting, and Lark Sparrow during the work work, while the East experiences moderate to heavy flights featuring Forster’s Tern, Solitary Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Blue-headed Vireo, Kentucky Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, American Redstart during a wave of favorable and unfavorable migration conditions associated with the movements of a strong frontal boundary.

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 of bird movement, and…

Light and moderate flights featuring White-faced Ibis, Semipalmated Plover, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Red-faced Warbler, and Western Tanager were frequent in many areas of the West, while the East saw moderate and locally heavy flights featuring Spotted Sandpiper, Chimney Swift, Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Blackpoll Warbler, Cape May Warbler, and Prairie Warbler in the southerly flow ahead of a frontal boundary.

Increasingly favorable conditions for light to moderate movements will build across the West for the work week, featuring Green Heron, Marbled Godwit, Short-billed Dowitcher, Cassin’s Vireo, Barn Swallow, Gray Flycatcher, and Summer Tanager, while the East experiences moderate to heavy flights of Broad-winged Hawk, Sora, Semipalmated Plover, American Avocet, Barn Swallow, Wood Thrush, Black-and-white Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole, and Lark Sparrow in the Plains for the first half of the period and similarly intense movements farther east later in the period.

Scattered moderate movements featuring Swainson’s Hawk, Vaux’s Swift, Bank Swallow, Yellow-breasted Chat, Summer Tanager, and Western Tanager were the migration highlights for the period in the West, while moderate to locally heavy movements associated with the passage of a strong frontal boundary through the East featured Green Heron, Broad-winged Hawk, Sora, Common Nighthawk, Warbling Vireo, House Wren, Palm Warbler, and Baltimore Oriole.

Welcome to our first spring 2016 installment of the traffic report describing northeast 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…

Warming conditions, occasionally punctuated with scattered precipitation, will generally see light to moderate flights across the West, particularly during the second half of the period, while a cold and quiet start to the weekend in the East will change markedly to begin (and end) the work week with moderate to locally heavy flights.