Few resources available to birders today rival the BirdCast webpages, as they provide remarkable insights to migration daily, in addition to migration forecasts. Common Nighthawks are among the many species of birds currently beginning migrations (photo by Paul Konrad). A still radar image of live bird migration just before midnight Monday night, provided by BirdCast and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

With the advent of early fall migration, BirdCast is back online providing exciting live radar-based migration maps, along with the popular Migration Dashboard that gives a daily overview of the species to watch for, overall numbers, and flight direction and altitude. There is also an associated webpage with Bird Migration Forecast Maps that show 3 nights of migration forecasts, plus a webpage that forecasts local migration action at Local Bird Migration Alerts. BirdCast is truly providing some of the most cutting edge information for birders!

Whether you are planning on some birding time or keeping in touch with the pulse of bird migration patterns, BirdCast is a breakthrough for us all. Start by checking the Live Bird Migration Maps that provide real-time radar-based maps that show the intensities of overnight bird migration as detected by the United States weather radar network across the Lower 48 States; see Live bird migration maps - BirdCast You can also check on maps for previous days simply by typing in the date of interest, and be sure to click on the white arrow to start the action.

To get a closer look at local bird migration intensity and some insights into what species are migrating through your area, just type the name of your county or state into the white box at the top of the Migration Dashboard to review bird migration above your local county at Migration Dashboard - BirdCast Of course, you can also explore bird migration above other counties and states of interest throughout the contiguous United States.

If you are making plans for birding time or are curious about what birds you might watch for in an area in coming days, you can get migration forecasts 1, 2, and 3 nights ahead of the current date by using the Bird Migration Forecast Maps at Bird migration forecast maps - BirdCast

You can also monitor local migration potential for the next 3 nights by checking in for Local Bird Migration Alerts for your city or a city near you at Local bird migration alerts - BirdCast and you can subscribe to receive Free email alerts when a big migration night is expected.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology currently produces these maps with support from NASA, the Edward Rose Postdoctoral Fellowship, and Amazon Web Services. The BirdCast project was created with grants from the National Science Foundation and is supported by additional grants from the Leon Levy Foundation.