Over 200 million migratory birds are hitting the sky this week
Popular Science...
Signs of the waning summer are everywhere. The sun is setting earlier, yellow school buses are emerging from hibernation, and birds are showing up on weather radar once again. The fall migration is in full swing and we humans can follow along with BirdCast.
Over the next two nights (August 25 and 26), BirdCast predicts that over 200 million birds will begin their long journey towards their head for their wintering grounds. Over 300North American bird species are long-distance migrants, meaning they will travel hundreds to thousands of miles annually. These migrations can take days to weeks, depending on the species
BirdCast’s daily forecast maps show their predicted nighttime migration patterns that begin roughly three hours after sunset. The brighter and warmer colors represent more birds expected overhead. They are also updated every six hours.
On August 25, expect the largest concentration of birds around Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
On Wednesday, August 26, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas should see the highest concentration of birds.
If you are curious which bird species may be traveling through your area, the dashboard is integrated with Cornell’s eBird database. This database uses common bird sightings from the same time in previous years to make predictions.
To make these maps, BirdCast uses weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), since their radar picks up large groups. It also uses weather forecasts to predict these nightly migration hotspots. A live map will also go up every night, so users can zero in on what might be going on in the skies where they live. BirdCast is made possible by participating scientists from Cornell University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Purdue University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and other contributors.
To migrate, or not to migrate
Typically, birds migrate for two reasons: nests and food. In the Northern Hemisphere, this means heading north during warmer months, when there are more insects and budding plant life to eat. During the spring, many species are also rushing to mate and nest.
Ahead of the colder months, some will return south to avoid freezing temperatures. Earlier in August, a famous, toeless piping plover (Charadrius melodus) named Phoenix was spotted back in Florida, after spending the summer over 1,000 miles away in Maine.
However, not all birds head south. Many birds, including mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos), black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus), and the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) don’t migrate and fare just fine in snowy conditions.
At least 4,000 bird species (or roughly 40 percent of world’s known birds) are regular migrants. The Arctic tern wins the award for longest migration of any bird in the world. These can fly almost 50,000 miles in one year, when traveling between their wintering ground in the Antarctic north to their breeding grounds in the Arctic.
How to help migrating birds
As the migration continues over the next several weeks, there are some easy ways to help make sure that the birds safely make it to their destinations.
- Add a film or decals to windows. This can help keep birds from colliding with the glass.
- Plant native plants and avoid pesticides when possible. This gives them safe places to land and eat.
- Keep cats indoors. This is good advice in general, as housecats can be destructive to the ecosystem, but rings particularly true during bird migration.
- Turn off all excess outdoor lights. Too many lights can impact their navigation
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