News

With much anticipation, the BirdCast team welcomes you to our Fall 2022 season! Our migration tools are now live, so please feel free to explore!

The BirdCast team loves a report from the field, and today we have one from Colorado – the home of our western base of operations, Colorado State University, where Dr. Kyle Horton directs the AeroEco Lab. We are especially pleased to introduce Mikko Jimenez, a PhD student in the Lab, to describe his experiences with the amazing and cool BirdScan MR1, a compact radar for monitoring the atmosphere (bird migration in particular, of course!) at resolutions far finer than those we typically discuss for WSR-88D operations.

The BirdCast team loves a report from the field, and today we have one from Colorado – the home of our western base of operations, Colorado State University, where Dr. Kyle Horton directs the AeroEco Lab.

An interesting pattern of Gray-cheeked Thrush arrivals in the central US during April led the BirdCast team to investigate a potential explanation. We looked to the wind.

The recent release of the BirdCast Migration Dashboard inspired much excitement here at BirdCast Central and among the broad array of collaborators, colleagues, friends, family, and followers. There are many ways to apply the information you can explore with the dashboard, but one intriguing possibility comes to us from Laura Cook of the amazing Warner Park Nature Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Take it away, Laura!

The recent release of the BirdCast Migration Dashboard inspired much excitement in a broad array of team members, collaborators, colleagues, friends, family, and followers. There are many ways to apply the information you can explore with the dashboard, but one intriguing possibility comes to us from Laura Cook in this post about tracking two Hermit Thrushes.

In Spring 2018 the BirdCast team unveiled two new migration monitoring tools: 1) our migration forecasts based on models trained on the last 23 years of bird movements in the atmosphere; and 2) our real-time analysis maps based on additional research showing intensities of actual nocturnal bird migration.

The new BirdCast Migration Dashboard is here, providing nocturnal bird migration data for counties and states in the contiguous US! This tool offers new capabilities to investigate birds’ movements in detail and at scales that complement our existing national forecast and live migration maps. Try it out today to explore patterns of nocturnal bird migration in your area!

This weekend’s change in temperature will harken the first big flocks of Brant, and numerous other species, arriving in the northeastern US.

The BirdCast team is saddened and deeply disturbed by the mass bird collision events that occurred on Monday night and Tuesday morning in Manhattan. Intense urban light pollution (and an abundance of tall buildings) together with poor flying conditions (this map shows the frontal boundary associated with the strong storms and poor visibility conditions) on a night of intense and low altitude migration contributed to these events.

BirdCast is deeply disturbed by the mass bird collision events that occurred earlier this week in Manhattan. Light pollution and poor flying conditions on a night of intense migration contributed to these events. There are essentials actions we can take to prevent these types of events: turning off all non-essential lights, especially during migration periods, to reduce birds’ attraction to and disorientation by them, and making buildings bird friendly. See our recommendations for turning off lights below.

The BirdCast forecast model predicts just over half a billion birds to be flying during peak flight hours tonight! Turn out your lights! Go birding!