One of my favorite online birding resources returned March 1, 2024, highlighting bird migration in the United States.
A free online tool, Birdcast is the result of 20+ years of research, providing real-time predictions of bird migration using weather surveillance radar to gather information.
BirdCast’s helpful tools, include:
- Bird migration forecast maps
- Live bird migration maps
- Local bird migration alerts
- Migration dashboard
While I use all the tools during migration season, the live bird migration map of the United States showing real-time migration movement of birds in flight is one of the most impressive.
With the live bird migration map, you can view movement of birds from sunset through sunrise across the United States.
Migration in Southeast Michigan
It’s still early in spring migration for our area, despite a warm winter.
From my own birding over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed migrating songbirds are a few days to a few weeks early compared to past years.
It’s been an odd year for waterfowl migration in southeast Michigan.
Typically in early February we see hundreds of Canvasback, Tundra Swans, Redheads, and Lesser/Greater Scaup on the Detroit River or off the shore of Lake Erie in southeast Michigan.
But that wasn’t true this year, with few large groups of waterfowl reported in February on the Detroit River and Lake Erie.
So I was interested in what BirdCast would show for our area.
Last night we had winds from the northeast. I didn’t expect there was much migration in our area.
After checking BirdCast this morning, I learned I was right.
An estimated 500 birds crossed our county last night with an estimated peak migration of 1,000 birds in flight at 7:00AM (when the overnight count stops).
It was a different story when I viewed our area live bird migration map from three days ago, when the winds were coming from the south.
An estimated 64,200 birds crossed our county with peak migration at 7:00AM of 17,500 birds traveling northeast.
During spring migration in the Northern Hemisphere, southern winds help migrating birds as they travel to their breeding grounds in the north.
What Do Those Words Used by BirdCast Mean?
I’ve seen them for years, but it was good to learn (and be reminded of) what the acronyms and words used by BirdCast mean.
- Radar: Radio detection and ranging; originally developed during World War II to detect enemy aircraft
- Ornithologist: person who studies birds
- Meteorologist: person who studies weather
- NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration uses radar to detect weather-related events, including thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes
- NEXRAD: Next Generation Radar is a network of 150+ weather radars throughout the United States operated by NOAA
- Dual-polarization: dual-pot feature deployed in NEXRAD by NOAA in 2013 allowed meteorologists to differentiate sleet from rain droplets in the radar. And allowed ornithologists to differentiate birds from precipitation (rain, sleet, hail)
If you’re interested in birds or bird migration, visit BirdCast and learn more about the how, when, and where of bird migration in the contiguous United States.
Image credit: Dokter, A. M. 2024. BirdCast, live migration map; March 5, 2024. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Accessed: March 6, 2024.
