News

  • March 18, 2013Eastern Promises: Update 18 March 2013

    We continue to track the Eastern promises that we highlighted in December, as this past weekend provided yet another tantalizing example of the potential fruits of such promises. A Fieldfare was discovered in Carlisle, MA and seen and photographed by…

  • December 11, 2012Eastern Promises: Update 10 December 2012

    Following last week’s post about the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the promise of European vagrants in North America, we thought it useful to note the current forecast from NWS Climate Prediction Center for the NAO index. The graphic below shows the…

  • December 29, 2012Eastern Promises Update: 28 December 2012

    Well, the Fieldfare you so desired for the holidays certainly may have been beneath whatever vegetation is part of your holiday celebrations, but not if you live in North America. Although a number of Black-headed Gulls and Tufted Ducks are…

  • January 22, 2013Eastern Promises Update: 22 January 2012

    So far, the negative NAO index that team BirdCast pondered late last year has yet to materialize with the strength of the October-November period. However, recent weather in Europe and some forecasts for the short term suggest the potential for…

  • February 1, 2013Early spring migrants in the middle of winter

    January in the temperate Northern Hemisphere is not typically a time that most consider as falling within “spring migration.” Rather, local and facultative movements of  wintering birds and irruptive movements tend to dominate birding discussions, observations, and field trips. However, here…

  • October 9, 2020Delta near the delta

    Hurricane Delta is a powerful storm predicted to make landfall late on Friday on the Louisiana coast. Gulf of Mexico seabirds, as well as some nearer shore species and overland migrants, will be associated with the arrival and passage of the storm as it moves inland to the north and east.

  • March 13, 2015Definitions – BirdCast regions, species on the move, and migration amounts

    For migration forecasts and analyses, we use the following divisions to represent the continental US. We use these regions because their component states have many migration patterns in common and because their component states’ proximity make for logical groupings. Without…

  • September 15, 2023Current species distribution around the Lee-impacted region

    For those watching the arrival of Hurricane Lee, the BirdCast team though it might be useful to see a map of some of the species presently in the region predicted to experience impacts from Lee in the very near future.

  • May 5, 2021Caribbean Cruisers: visible migration along the Atlantic Coast of Florida

    During the week of April 19-25, several weather events set up excellent conditions for observing visible migration, mostly of wood-warblers, including this Worm-eating Warbler, migrating along Florida’s east coast. Our colleague Jacob Drucker reports on his observations on the ground!

  • April 1, 2019Bright lights in the big cities: migratory birds’ exposure to artificial light

    New research from the BirdCast team highlights risks of exposure to artificial light at night for migrating birds. We ranked metropolitan areas where birds are at the greatest risk of becoming attracted to and disoriented by lights.

  • August 30, 2021Birds in Ida’s wake

    Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana as a category 4 storm, and its remnants continue to move north and east through the US. Numerous seabirds entrained and displaced by this storm are occurring far inland, and our live map of these observations highlights their distributions.

  • August 30, 2023Birds entrained and displaced by Hurricane Idalia

    Idalia made landfall in Florida on Wednesday, packing very strong winds, heavy rains, and flooding and storm surges. The storm also brought a host of Gulf of Mexico seabirds into the southeastern US.

Scientific Team

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