Long-tailed Duck. Peter Hawrylyshyn/Macaulay Library. eBird S32406018.

Continental Summary

A quiet week in the West for migration saw a few, mostly coastal pulses of light to moderate movements featuring Tundra Swan, Red Phalarope, Bonaparte’s Gull, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, American Pipit, Cedar Waxwing, and Dark-eyed Junco, while moderate to locally heavy flights associated with frontal passages featured Northern Pintail, Common Goldeneye, Long-tailed Duck, Long-billed Curlew, Northern Shrike, Sedge Wren, and American Tree Sparrow in the East.

Curious what birds will move next? Check out our forecast.

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Quick Links to Regions

Upper Midwest and Northeast	Gulf Coast and Southeast
Great Plains	West

Upper Midwest and Northeast

Light to moderate flights in the mid Atlantic kicked off Friday night, followed by a pulse of mostly moderate and locally heavy flights in the Midwest for the remainder of the weekend. A similar, albeit less intense example of the same pattern followed on Monday and Tuesday night. With a frontal boundary moving across the region late in the period, a more extensive mostly moderate intensity flight ended the work week; note that most of this movement was south and west of the eastern Great Lakes.

Top Movers

[expand title=”Increasing” tag=”h3″]
[table sort=”,desc” tablesorter=”true”]
Species,Increase from Last Week[attr style=”color:green”],% of Checklists Reporting

Long-tailed Duck,70%,2.7
Hooded Merganser,43%,5.6
Common Loon,35%,8.2
Common Goldeneye,59%,1.7
Horned Grebe,38%,3.8
American Tree Sparrow,41%,5.2
Bufflehead,33%,5.1
Glaucous Gull,382%,0.2
Common Redpoll,250%,0.3
Red-throated Loon,42%,2
Black Guillemot,217%,0.3
American Goldfinch,12%,37.4
Red-breasted Merganser,31%,3.7
Black-capped Chickadee,10%,38.8
Northern Shrike,54%,0.8
Cedar Waxwing,17%,12.2
Eastern Bluebird,13%,16.8
Common Eider,30%,1.7
Franklin’s Gull,68%,0.6
Downy Woodpecker,7%,38.8

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[expand title=”Decreasing” tag=”h3″]
[table sort=”,asc” tablesorter=”true”]
Species,Decrease from Last Week[attr style=”color:red”],% of Checklists Reporting

Tree Swallow,-61%,1.7
Forster’s Tern,-55%,0.9
Osprey,-55%,1.2
Eastern Phoebe,-42%,3.8
Blue-headed Vireo,-63%,0.5
Chipping Sparrow,-34%,5.6
Field Sparrow,-31%,4.9
Ruby-crowned Kinglet,-29%,11.2
Cattle Egret,-69%,0.2
Palm Warbler,-38%,2.7
Turkey Vulture,-23%,15.6
Blackpoll Warbler,-64%,0.5
Brant,-38%,2.2
Merlin,-33%,2.4
Lincoln’s Sparrow,-52%,0.7
Yellow-rumped Warbler,-24%,16.5
Royal Tern,-40%,1
White-crowned Sparrow,-27%,4.9
Eastern Towhee,-26%,4.4
Sharp-shinned Hawk,-23%,5.4
Gray Catbird,-41%,1.9
Cooper’s Hawk,-20%,7.3
Clay-colored Sparrow,-63%,0.1

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Long-billed Curlew. Chris Wood/Macaulay Library. eBird S31078652.

Gulf Coast and Southeast

Locally moderate flights kicked off the weekend, with more intense local flights and more widespread moderate flights arriving by Sunday night in most areas. Intensities of movements dropped significantly during the course of the work week, as southerly flow and warmer temperatures built back into the region. But Thursday night saw a break in these conditions, with the return of more widespread moderate and locally heavy flights in almost all but the most southern reaches of the region.

Top Movers

[expand title=”Increasing” tag=”h3″]
[table sort=”,desc” tablesorter=”true”]
Species,Increase from Last Week[attr style=”color:green”],% of Checklists Reporting

Black-necked Stilt,182%,5.5
Long-billed Curlew,338%,3.4
Least Grebe,219%,4
Franklin’s Gull,488%,2.7
Spotted Sandpiper,109%,6.8
White-tailed Kite,296%,2.8
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck,92%,7.3
Black Phoebe,521%,2.3
Northern Pintail,159%,4.4

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[expand title=”Decreasing” tag=”h3″]
[table sort=”,asc” tablesorter=”true”]
Species,Decrease from Last Week[attr style=”color:red”],% of Checklists Reporting

Yellow-billed Cuckoo,-69%,0.5
Northern Flicker,-28%,15.4
Tundra Swan,-94%,0
Blue Jay,-23%,37
Red-bellied Woodpecker,-20%,32.4
White-crowned Sparrow,-39%,2.1
Brown Thrasher,-25%,9.4
Lincoln’s Sparrow,-35%,2
Red-breasted Nuthatch,-33%,2.3
Great Black-backed Gull,-44%,0.5
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker,-25%,8.8
American Crow,-17%,29.7
Pine Warbler,-21%,7.8
Downy Woodpecker,-15%,21.7
Northern Cardinal,-13%,42.1
Indigo Bunting,-22%,2.9
House Finch,-15%,15.3
Brown Creeper,-32%,1.2
Common Raven,-38%,0.8
Prairie Warbler,-32%,1.8
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American Goldfinch. Jack and Shirley Foreman/Macaulay Library. eBird S32403455.

Great Plains

Locally moderate to heavy pulses were the norm for the entire period across the region. No region wide movements occurred, primarily because of multiple passing disturbance that were neither intense nor extensive in their extents. The heavies flights occurred in the southern Plains, on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, with Thursday’s flight the most intense in particular over eastern Oklahoma.

Top Movers

[expand title=”Increasing” tag=”h3″]
[table sort=”,desc” tablesorter=”true”]
Species,Increase from Last Week[attr style=”color:green”],% of Checklists Reporting

Northern Shrike,302%,3
American Tree Sparrow,64%,12.8
Golden Eagle,585%,1.4
American Goldfinch,29%,30.6
Greater White-fronted Goose,121%,6.1
Pacific Loon,634%,0.9
Dark-eyed Junco,21%,46.5
White-faced Ibis,88%,2
Black-crowned Night-Heron,229%,1.2
Sedge Wren,230%,2.4
Song Sparrow,16%,23.7
Herring Gull,29%,6.5
Snow Goose,31%,4.4
Red-breasted Nuthatch,19%,9.6
Purple Finch,33%,3
Common Loon,26%,4
Ferruginous Hawk,350%,1
Redhead,18%,13
Black-capped Chickadee,13%,26.3
Fox Sparrow,20%,6.8
Green-winged Teal,16%,15.9
Brown Creeper,17%,6.2
Downy Woodpecker,9%,28.2

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[expand title=”Decreasing” tag=”h3″]
[table sort=”,asc” tablesorter=”true”]
Species,Decrease from Last Week[attr style=”color:red”],% of Checklists Reporting

Orange-crowned Warbler,-81%,0.8
Eastern Towhee,-89%,0.1
Turkey Vulture,-66%,2.2
Barn Swallow,-92%,0.1
Osprey,-41%,2.1
Fish Crow,-75%,0.1
Carolina Chickadee,-20%,10
Yellow-rumped Warbler,-15%,17.9
Pine Siskin,-63%,0.3
Clay-colored Sparrow,-53%,0.5
Pectoral Sandpiper,-67%,0.2
Great Egret,-19%,7.5
Chipping Sparrow,-23%,5.7
Blue-headed Vireo,-85%,0.1
Snow Bunting,-67%,0.6
Red-shouldered Hawk,-18%,6.9
Black-bellied Plover,-47%,0.5
Double-crested Cormorant,-9%,27
Common Yellowthroat,-74%,0.1
Mourning Dove,-11%,16.8
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher,-117%,-0.2
Eastern Phoebe,-26%,3
Least Sandpiper,-22%,3.8
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Red Phalarope. Dan Murphy/Macaulay Library. eBird S32390809.

West

Aside from the isolated moderate flights in the Pacific Northwest on Friday night, the West experienced a quiet migration weekend. Scattered precipitation and some unfavorable winds kept birds grounded in many areas. Scattered light movements aside, the next more intense flight came in California on Tuesday night reaching moderate levels. Slightly less intense but similarly distributed, more coastal, flights continued through the end of the period, most notably reaching their greatest extents on Thursday night.

Top Movers

[expand title=”Increasing” tag=”h3″]
[table sort=”,desc” tablesorter=”true”]
Species,Increase from Last Week[attr style=”color:green”],% of Checklists Reporting

Black-vented Shearwater,388%,1.4
Bonaparte’s Gull,63%,3.5
American Pipit,51%,7.9
Ruby-crowned Kinglet,29%,27.8
Red Phalarope,122%,2
Black Oystercatcher,82%,2
American Goldfinch,30%,11.3
Bufflehead,27%,10.7
Tundra Swan,85%,0.9
Common Murre,76%,2.1
Cedar Waxwing,42%,7.8
Black Phoebe,14%,27
Anna’s Hummingbird,15%,26.9
Red-breasted Sapsucker,52%,2.7
Merlin,31%,3.1
Western Bluebird,19%,9.7
American Kestrel,16%,15.2
Turkey Vulture,25%,11.7
Fox Sparrow,20%,7.4
Canada Goose,10%,22
White-throated Swift,55%,1
Dark-eyed Junco,13%,29.8

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[expand title=”Decreasing” tag=”h3″]
[table sort=”,asc” tablesorter=”true”]
Species,Decrease from Last Week[attr style=”color:red”],% of Checklists Reporting

Lark Bunting,-95%,0
Common Grackle,-64%,0.2
Pigeon Guillemot,-46%,0.5
White-winged Scoter,-45%,1.2
Snowy Plover,-48%,0.4
Northern Goshawk,-71%,0.1
Sabine’s Gull,-74%,0.1
Red-necked Grebe,-25%,1.5
Gray Catbird,-55%,0.2
Lesser Yellowlegs,-45%,0.3
Black Scoter,-46%,0.3
Long-billed Dowitcher,-21%,2
Barrow’s Goldeneye,-35%,0.4
Sandhill Crane,-19%,2.1
Clark’s Nutcracker,-23%,0.7
Mountain Chickadee,-14%,3.8
Caspian Tern,-30%,0.6
Black-bellied Plover,-15%,2.4
American White Pelican,-11%,4.7
Evening Grosbeak,-29%,0.4
Blue-winged Teal,-18%,1.2
Redhead,-14%,2.6

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Farnsworth and Van Doren