News

Hurricane Harvey came ashore on the central Texas coast last week with an almost unimaginable combination of destructive winds and rain. Team BirdCast has been tracking the avian fallout from this storm, perhaps a brief respite for some to escape from the horrible scenes of the devastation in Harvey’s wake.

Hurricane Nate came ashore in Mississippi late Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Although this storm did not pack the strong winds or very heavy rains of recent hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico or Caribbean, all such storms are…

Team BirdCast monitors birds and their associations with hurricanes when we can, as they provide rare opportunities to study entrainment and displacement of birds. Such storms are dangerous in the extreme, no matter what intensity, and Hurricane Harvey proves no exception. This storm is coming ashore as a Category 4 Hurricane, very strong and very dangerous!

Hurricane Irma will transport numerous species of birds far from their normal haunts. This is a dangerous storm that has already devastated many areas of the Caribbean, and it is forecast to make landfall in the US this weekend. Our hearts go out to those affected by this storm and the recent Harvey, and we hope that all those still in the path of this storm heed all warnings from the National Hurricane Center. Significant storms like this often trap (or ‘entrain’) birds in their circulation, depositing them far from where they originated. We still do not fully understand many of the mechanisms involved in birds getting ‘entrained’ and then deposited by storms, which is one reason why Team BirdCast (and many others) are interested in sightings associated with these storms.

A frontal boundary is approaching the Gulf of Mexico region, likely moving over water late on Thursday evening. Fallouts and concentrations of migrating birds are likely along the Gulf of Mexico coast for several days.

Global Big Day is here, and depending on your region you may have an exciting or depressing migration experience brewing: enter the polar vortex, shutting down movements in much of the East and spawning movements in the far West.

BirdCast is thrilled to announce a public service announcement from former First Lady Laura Bush and a proclamation from Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson about the Lights Out Texas initiative to protect nocturnally migrating birds from the hazards of light pollution!

Enormous, and growing, numbers of dead birds discovered in the southern Rockies over the past few weeks have alarmed scientists, conservationists, and advocates alike. The massive mortality events may be a result of intense fires in the western US and the smoke that they have produced.

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 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.

A massive migration event occurred on the Massachusetts coast on the morning of 16 May 2020. Several observers were fortunate to be on the ground in the right place and the right time. Here’s the story!

Large numbers of birds died in collisions with glass and structures while major migration was occurring in the Chicago area on the night of 4-5 October 2023. Turn off your lights, make your windows bird friendly!