Lights Out
Every spring and fall, billions of birds migrate through the US, mostly under the cover of darkness. This mass movement of birds must contend with a dramatically increasing but still largely unrecognized threat: light pollution.| BirdCast
Migration intensity goes off the charts, again, with a new record night of migration intensity for BirdCast!| BirdCast
BirdCast and the Bird Collision Prevention Alliance presented at the annual Migration Celebration at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. We have a winner for the BirdCast 'Guess How Many' challenge: how many birds will fly over New York State tonight?| BirdCast
Update Aug 28 2025 23:00 EST: the BirdCast live maps are back online. Please note that the historical data for August 26-28 2025 are missing and will be added at a later time. BirdCast live maps and dashboard are currently down as of Aug 26 due to technical issues. A fix has been identified and […]| BirdCast
Fall migration is upon us! Well, it has been for some weeks, but on 1 August, BirdCast begins its nightly migration forecasting! We are often asked, when is peak bird migration in my area? Good question! And a question that we can answer for most cities in the contiguous United States.| birdcast.info
Fall migration is upon us! Well, it has been for some weeks, but on 1 August, BirdCast begins its nightly migration forecasting! We are often asked, when is peak bird migration in my area? Good question! And a question that we can answer for most cities in the contiguous United States.| BirdCast
Update: 28 May, 10am ET. The technical issues with the migration forecasts and alerts have now been resolved. Thank you for your patience as we worked through various fixes.| BirdCast
Every spring and fall, billions of birds migrate through the US, mostly under the cover of darkness. This mass movement of birds must contend with a dramatically increasing but still largely unrecognized threat: light pollution.| BirdCast
Hurricane Milton is a powerful and very dangerous storm. Birds have been reported traveling in its eye, and as the storm approaches landfall, bioscattered is visible in proximity to the eye of the storm.| BirdCast
Hurricane Helene is a dangerous storm predicted to make landfall on Thursday afternoon eastern time in the Florida Panhandle. Its circulation will entrain pelagic birds, displace nearshore species, and down overland migrants in many areas of the southeast and probably as far north as Tennessee and maybe even Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. We are following the progress of the storm and posting observations here.| BirdCast
Keep your eyes open for Northern Wheatear in northeastern North American in the coming days - go birding and help make us look good by documenting this species! Time of year and prevailing weather appear to be aligning to warrant us donning our prediction hats!| BirdCast
Francine made landfall in Louisiana, now making its way north along the lower Mississippi River valley. Its circulation has entrained some pelagic birds, displaced some nearshore species, and downed overland migrants.| BirdCast
Debby arrived to Florida, meandered its way into the Carolina Bight, made landfall in the Carolinas, and is now rapidly speeding toward the northeastern portions of the continent. This storm, though not powerful in terms of winds, has produced large amounts of precipitation in its path and its wake. It's also entrained some pelagic birds, displaced some nearshore species, and downed overland migrants.| BirdCast
Spring migration is in full swing, and knowing when peak migration will occur in your area is valuable information! Here we provide a sortable table of peak periods of spring bird migration for the largest cities by human population size in the contiguous US.| BirdCast
Learn more about what you can do to help protect birds.| BirdCast
As a reminder to what the team is working on here at BirdCast, we return to a previous post we wrote. With spring soon arriving and preparations for migration underway, here is a primer on what we do. We turn weather radar data into information on the numbers and flight directions of birds aloft in order to expand the understanding of migratory bird movement. After several years (and hundreds of posts) describing migration, species on the move, and unique migration events, we want you to have...| BirdCast
Large numbers of birds died in collisions with glass and structures while major migration was occurring in the Chicago area on the night of 4-5 October 2023. Turn off your lights, make your windows bird friendly!| BirdCast
