Sora. Glenn Wyatt/Macaulay Library. 14 Apr 2016. eBird S28947932

Continental Summary

Scattered moderate movements featuring Swainson’s Hawk, Vaux’s Swift, Bank Swallow, Yellow-breasted Chat, Summer Tanager, and Western Tanager were the migration highlights for the period in the West, while moderate to locally heavy movements associated with the passage of a strong frontal boundary through the East featured Green Heron, Broad-winged Hawk, Sora, Common Nighthawk, Warbling Vireo, House Wren, Palm Warbler, and Baltimore Oriole.

Wondering what species will be migrating this coming week? Check out our forecast for the next 7 days.

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Need a review of our definitions for regions, species on the move, and migration amounts? Please visit this link.

Quick Links to Regions

Upper Midwest and Northeast	Gulf Coast and Southeast
Great Plains	West

Upper Midwest and Northeast

A pulse of locally moderate flights in the Midwest on Saturday night, and similarly intense flights on Sunday night in parts of the Ohio River Valley, were the primary migration highlights for the opening weekend of the period. Continuing cool temperatures and the passage of a strong frontal boundary generally made for unfavorable migration conditions. After high pressure moved east in the wake of the frontal passage, however, moderate to locally heavy flights ensued in the Upper Midwest on Tuesday night. These flights continued on Wednesday night, and the extent of the movements expanded east to end the period. Thursday night saw the most widespread movement of the spring to date, with most areas participating in the flight away from the immediate coast.

Top Movers

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

Ruby-crowned Kinglet,123%,15
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher,135%,8.4
Yellow-rumped Warbler,75%,13.5
Palm Warbler,174%,4.5
Hermit Thrush,74%,9.4
Northern Parula,355%,1.9
Caspian Tern,127%,2.6
Chipping Sparrow,62%,18.5
Brown Thrasher,93%,8.5
Broad-winged Hawk,1032%,1.1
Tree Swallow,55%,28.9
Swamp Sparrow,75%,8.2
Barn Swallow,68%,6.4
Field Sparrow,78%,10.7
Eastern Towhee,59%,14.6
House Wren,892%,0.6
Sora,314%,0.8
White-eyed Vireo,226%,0.9
Northern Rough-winged Swallow,54%,7.3
Belted Kingfisher,41%,11.9
Green Heron,542%,0.5
Eastern Phoebe,40%,28.5
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker,37%,10.6
Northern Flicker,32%,32.5
Yellow-throated Warbler,94%,2.5

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Species,Decrease from Last Week[attr style=”color:red”],% of Checklists Reporting

American Pipit,-58%,0.5
Northern Gannet,-27%,0.9
Snowy Owl,-66%,0
Great Cormorant,-51%,0.1
American Black Duck,-14%,4.8
American Wigeon,-17%,2.7
Horned Lark,-17%,2.2
White-winged Scoter,-37%,0.3
Black Scoter,-31%,0.4
Snow Bunting,-60%,0
Long-tailed Duck,-24%,0.7
Surf Scoter,-22%,0.6
Purple Finch,-13%,4.4
Dark-eyed Junco,-5%,33
Golden Eagle,-46%,0
Common Goldeneye,-23%,1.5
Great Black-backed Gull,-9%,3.9
Tundra Swan,-30%,0.3
Hooded Merganser,-12%,6
Sanderling,-22%,0.3

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Painted Bunting.
Dan Jones/Macaulay Library. 13 Apr 2016. eBird S28930957

Gulf Coast and Southeast

Migration action was mostly west of the Mississippi on Friday and Saturday nights, with light to moderate flights, but these movements became substantially more widespread by Sunday night. These flights intensified on Monday night, albeit in a significantly less extensive fashion given intense precipitation shutting down movements between the Mississippi River and the southern Appalachians. The movements that ended the period for the region were generally similar in intensity, with many moderate to locally heavy flights; however, the distribution of these flights was scattered by locally intense precipitation, particularly in the southeastern US.

Top Movers

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

Wood Thrush,116%,6.8
Rose-breasted Grosbeak,269%,3
Baltimore Oriole,270%,3.4
Blue Grosbeak,118%,4.7
Painted Bunting,193%,4.4
Summer Tanager,80%,10.4
Indigo Bunting,76%,12.3
Yellow-breasted Chat,329%,2.3
Scarlet Tanager,90%,5.4
Orchard Oriole,76%,8.7
Tennessee Warbler,86%,5.9
Common Nighthawk,540%,1.9
Warbling Vireo,589%,2.1
American Redstart,106%,4.1
Red-eyed Vireo,47%,12.5
Northern Waterthrush,151%,2.9
Swainson’s Thrush,87%,3.9
Nashville Warbler,137%,3.6
Cerulean Warbler,136%,1.6
Blue-winged Warbler,88%,3.9
Western Kingbird,355%,1.5
Brown-crested Flycatcher,208%,1.6
Yellow-billed Cuckoo,69%,4.8
Ruby-throated Hummingbird,39%,12.2

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

Green-winged Teal,-40%,1.4
Swallow-tailed Kite,-34%,2.3
American Kestrel,-37%,2.3
Red-breasted Merganser,-33%,1.7
Dark-eyed Junco,-42%,1.8
Ring-billed Gull,-28%,5.1
Bufflehead,-53%,0.5
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker,-39%,1.4
Double-crested Cormorant,-14%,17.7
Glossy Ibis,-22%,2.9
Gadwall,-29%,1.8
Golden-crowned Kinglet,-79%,0.1
Turkey Vulture,-16%,28.3
Ring-necked Duck,-60%,0.3
Lesser Scaup,-30%,1.5
American White Pelican,-22%,2.8
Fish Crow,-12%,17.7
Herring Gull,-20%,2.8
Lesser Black-backed Gull,-46%,0.2
Greater Scaup,-71%,0.1
Hooded Merganser,-49%,0.4
Pied-billed Grebe,-12%,9.8
Horned Grebe,-58%,0.2

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Lark Sparrow. Simon Kiacz/Macaulay Library. 6 Apr 2016. eBird S28786946

Great Plains

Light to moderate movements early in the weekend were scattered across the region, but these quickly came to an end with the passage of a cold front on Sunday. Scattered light movements returned to the northern and central Plains on Monday night, expanding slightly in extent on Tuesday before reaching the period’s peak intensity on Wednesday night in the northern Plains. Thursday night saw widespread light movements, although the intensity and extent of these was certainly muted by the approach of a disturbance in the northern and central Plains.

Top Movers

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

Northern Parula,131%,5.6
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher,69%,12.9
Great Egret,75%,8.3
American Avocet,101%,4.9
Lesser Yellowlegs,71%,10.4
Lark Sparrow,123%,4.2
Chipping Sparrow,58%,14.1
Marbled Godwit,504%,2
Hudsonian Godwit,207%,2.3
Little Blue Heron,4137%,1.5
Savannah Sparrow,67%,13.2
Spotted Sandpiper,318%,1.6
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher,72%,5.8
House Wren,378%,1.5
White-faced Ibis,187%,1.7
Barn Swallow,45%,10.5
Franklin’s Gull,45%,8.9
Brown Thrasher,42%,12.5
Northern Rough-winged Swallow,52%,7.3
Say’s Phoebe,155%,1.4
Northern Shoveler,35%,32.3
Least Sandpiper,50%,4.1
Blue-winged Teal,35%,40.7

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

Sandhill Crane,-82%,0.6
Dark-eyed Junco,-43%,13.5
Purple Finch,-68%,0.6
Greater White-fronted Goose,-67%,0.6
Brown Creeper,-51%,1.1
Snow Goose,-43%,1.9
Hermit Thrush,-52%,0.9
Northern Flicker,-14%,22.4
Cackling Goose,-91%,0.1
Rough-legged Hawk,-82%,0.1
Northern Harrier,-14%,8.5
American Robin,-8%,51
Bufflehead,-21%,7.1
Ring-necked Duck,-16%,6.6
Ring-billed Gull,-12%,14.6
Common Goldeneye,-46%,1.1
American Golden-Plover,-41%,1.8
Winter Wren,-49%,0.3
Red-tailed Hawk,-8%,21.6
American Tree Sparrow,-32%,1.6

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Yellow-breasted Chat. Don Hoechlin/Macaulay Library. 10 Apr 2016. eBird S28867034

West

Localized light to moderate flights highlighted a region otherwise punctuated with scattered precipitation. As low pressure moved east, Monday night saw more intense movements in California and portions of the Desert Southwest. These continue through Wednesday nights, although the remainder of the region saw isolated light movements at best in continuing scattered precipitation (including significant snow at higher altitudes) and less favorable migration conditions. As the disturbance (a “stuck” low pressure system) responsible for this precipitation moved east, light movements began to reappear in more westerly and southerly reaches of the region 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

Swainson’s Hawk,63%,6.3
Wilson’s Warbler,71%,6.4
Ash-throated Flycatcher,63%,5.5
Black-headed Grosbeak,56%,5.2
Vaux’s Swift,208%,1.1
Common Grackle,51%,5.3
Nashville Warbler,85%,2.1
Barn Swallow,45%,11.4
Lazuli Bunting,206%,1.3
Western Tanager,336%,1
Black-throated Gray Warbler,50%,4.5
White-winged Dove,46%,7.1
Cliff Swallow,43%,9.1
Yellow-breasted Chat,189%,0.9
Bank Swallow,189%,0.9
Summer Tanager,1016%,0.6
Yellow Warbler,37%,4.7
Northern Rough-winged Swallow,29%,10.7
Brown-headed Cowbird,26%,6.7
Yellow-headed Blackbird,24%,4.5
Pacific-slope Flycatcher,45%,5.4
MacGillivray’s Warbler,126%,0.6
Black-chinned Hummingbird,35%,4.8
Bell’s Vireo,38%,4.1

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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

Fox Sparrow,-36%,1.4
Dark-eyed Junco,-17%,17.6
Varied Thrush,-39%,0.8
Sandhill Crane,-25%,2.4
Common Goldeneye,-22%,3.7
Ruby-crowned Kinglet,-17%,7.6
Hooded Merganser,-23%,2.2
Red-breasted Sapsucker,-23%,1.5
Marbled Murrelet,-52%,0.1
Northern Flicker,-8%,23.1
Greater Scaup,-17%,1.8
Rough-legged Hawk,-38%,0.4
Golden-crowned Kinglet,-13%,2.4
Eurasian Wigeon,-42%,0.2
Common Merganser,-10%,5.7
Brandt’s Cormorant,-18%,1.4
Surf Scoter,-11%,2.9
Red-tailed Hawk,-6%,22.3

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Farnsworth and Van Doren