News

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.

Easterly flow in the North Atlantic has the potential to bring European species into northeastern North America in the coming days. Marginal to favorable conditions for such displacement are predicted for the coming days, so birders should watch their favorite patches closely.

More than 400 million birds will take flight tonight across the contiguous US tonight, highlighted by large flights in the south central US. Tonight will be one of the last very large flights of the autumn, with a diverse array of species on the move.

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.

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!

More than half a billion birds will take flight tonight across the contiguous US tonight! The BirdCast model is predicting intense migration in many areas of the central and southeastern US in the wake of a passing cold front.

The BirdCast model is predicting high intensity migration this evening, with more than half a billion birds on the move! And there will be additional, similarly large flights, in the coming nights! This will likely represent one of the largest series of migration nights of the year in the contiguous US.

At this point you have heard the stories for the west about bird mortality, but perhaps you have not heard the stories about species on the move out of the mountains. BirdCast will feature evolving stories about eruptions from higher elevations, and this week we highlight Mountain Chickadee.

Hurricane Teddy is arriving soon in Atlantic Canada. A significant diversity of tropical seabirds may arrive with it in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and possibly even Greenland.