Northern Flickers are among the early migrants to watch for in coming weeks (photo by Doug Gochfield).

As some birds are already starting their migrations, or even in the midst of their seasonal migration to a stopover area, BirdCast provides real-time maps that show the varying intensities of actual nocturnal bird migration across the Lower 48 States as detected by the US weather radar network between sunset and sunrise. BirdCast also provides regional migration predictions. In addition, an especially helpful new tool provides details about migration in your county, a very localized migration monitoring tool – Migration Dashboard.

Migration Dashboard provides exciting information that includes the number of birds that migrated overhead the previous night, their flight altitudes, direction, and flight speeds, plus an illustrated list of the potential species migrating.

BirdCast’s real-time maps show the changing numbers and locations of nocturnal bird migration across the Lower 48 States between sunset and sunrise. A red line moves from east to west to represent the time of local sunset, and a moving yellow line represents the time of local sunrise. Areas with brighter colors indicate more intense bird migration, and orange arrows show the directions the birds are flying.

Each night’s live map is filed and available for reference so you can easily review the migration activity the night before or a week before, when an abundance of birds stops by your property or favorite birding location. It’s all really impressive, very helpful, quite insightful, and lots of fun to monitor – daily, weekly, or whenever you think of it at Live bird migration maps - BirdCast

And definitely check in regularly to the Migration Dashboard to review local bird migration activities above your local county at Migration Dashboard - BirdCast

BirdCast also uses migration data, weather forecasts, and radar imagery to make weekly regional predictions for fall and spring migrations. You can check predictions for the next 3 nights by typing the name of your nearest city into the search box titled Local Bird Migration Alerts at Local bird migration alerts - BirdCast and another favorite feature of BirdCast provides Bird Migration Forecast Maps for the next 3 nights at Bird migration forecast maps - BirdCast

BirdCast is a group of interdisciplinary researchers from 3 primary organizations: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Colorado State University, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, along with a growing list of important supporters and partners.