News

Over the coming weeks, our excitement about arriving migrants in the Gulf of Mexico region from Central and South America and the Caribbean will build to fever-pitch! Some of these migrants will arrive after significant over water flights, which we generally call trans-Gulf migration. We will speak of it often, to be sure! And though the peak of these movements is more than one month from now, even in mid March some inbound trans-Gulf bird migration is occurring over the western Gulf of Mexico.

Above average temperatures are coming to the eastern half of the US next week, and with these warming temperatures will come early season movements of birds. But for the western US, no such luck arrives. Keep a close eye on forecasts, ours included, to see what happens!

As the calendar page turns to March, the BirdCast team opens the spring 2021 migration forecasting season with the return of forecast and live migration maps! Birds are already on the move and have been for many weeks, but number have been increasing, particularly in the southeastern US last night. Read on to check on what species might be on the move in your part of the country.

Welcome to 2021! Team BirdCast has a number of projects underway for this year. And although we are still a good 4-6 weeks from the first significant movements of mid to late winter migrants moving in the US, keen observers should be aware of several patterns to watch now.

During Fall 2020 a “superflight of finches” occurred in the eastern US, featuring the biggest Evening Grosbeak migration in more than 20 years, redpolls undergoing their largest movement in perhaps a decade, and Pine Siskins irrupting in their best numbers since 2008. These ‘Finch Superflights’, which are defined as southern flights of all eight eastern irruptive finches, are rare, and this year, conditions have aligned and all species have moved in numbers, including the rarest of irruptives, the Pine Grosbeak.

With dawn’s arrival today Team BirdCast officially closed the books on another migration season of forecasting where, when, and how many birds will migrate over the contiguous US. Team BirdCast thanks all of you who spent time perusing our forecasts, pondering our interpretations, and (hopefully) ground-truthing our speculations!

Numerous storm-driven birds have likely appeared in peninsular Florida as the meandering Tropical Storm Eta churns in the Gulf of Mexico. With the forecast for the storm to make landfall and move quickly off into the Atlantic Ocean in the coming 24 hours, safe and careful observers may find a range of Gulf of Mexico seabirds and some displaced waterbirds.

Franklin’s Gulls may be on the move far to the east of their normal autumn range in the coming 24-72 hours, as an intense storm system continues to move across the country toward the Atlantic Ocean and entrains and displaces individuals and flocks of this long-distance migrant. Observers in northeastern North America should be on the lookout, especially along coastlines, lakeshores, and rivers, from Wednesday through Friday.

Spend your spooky Halloween evenings safely enjoying late season bird migration. For the intrepid with no aversion to long nights outside in cold temperatures, direct your optics to the face of the Micro Blue Moon to watch birds pass!

Hurricane Zeta is powering toward the Louisiana coast, predicted to make landfall on Wednesday afternoon. This storm will certainly entrain Gulf of Mexico seabirds, as well as displacing some nearer shore species inland and dropping overland migrants. Given the storm’s arrival time, predicted track and speed, birders from the Louisiana coast to Cape May, NJ should keep safe, socially distanced, and watchful eyes on all bodies of water and your favorite birding patches.

Central Texas birders, drop what you are doing, distance yourselves from others, and go birding! Radars in the area are currently detecting what may be streaming raptors. Tell us what you find!

Birders in eastern North America should keep their eyes open, especially in coastal and lakeshore locations, for Cave Swallows this weekend and in the weeks to come. The passage of a strong weather systems, like the cold front moving through the northeastern US today, hearkens the start of a period during which this species can occur, occasionally in significant numbers, far outside of its typical southern ranges.