Great migrations on light winds

Regional Overview

Last night was another good push of migrants. There were good conditions to let birds fly unimpeded through NY and northern OH but points south experienced storms overnight that may have produced localized fallouts. There are already reports coming in of very high volumes of flight calls being detected this morning in NY and PA. Check the radar images below to see if your area saw precipitation move through last night and get out there and bird the areas that saw lots of migrants early in the night followed by some storms early in the morning.


I don’t always have time to comment on the radar in each state. To interpret it yourself, read the quick tutorial at the bottom of the page.

New York

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Pennsylvania & New Jersey

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Ohio

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Maryland and Delaware

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Quick guide to interpreting the radar

On the top row (reflectivity radar), the images show the magnitude of migration. When birds are migrating, it looks like a donut shape around the center of the radar station.

The bottom row is the velocity radar. This shows the direction that the objects detected by the radar station are moving. Blues are moving towards the radar station, yellows and reds are moving away from the station. So for southbound migration, blue should be on the top half of the donut, yellow on the bottom half.

Watch for precipitation moving through during the night hours, this can cause birds to stop migrating in a concentrated area, creating the fabled ‘fallout’, particularly on nights with strong migration.

For more in depth info, watch this video.
For migration updates or other regions check-

Pac NW – Birds Over Portland by Greg Haworth

I need your help! These reports will only be as good as the feedback I get on these updates. Please leave comments on interesting patterns of migration you are seeing in the field so I can incorporate some ground truthing to my forecasts and predictions. Thanks!