Oh My-Gration: Billions of Birds Set to Migrate this Season

From Wilson's Warbler to Canadian Geese, millions of birds (we are excluding "Snowbirds" from this count) are kicking off their seasonal migration to warmer climates further south. To learn more about this tremendous trek, we spoke with ornithologist and aero-ecologist, Kyle Horton, Ph.D. from Purdue University.

"We're well into fall migration across most of North America right now, and night after night there's going to be hundreds of millions of birds flying. Across the season, we'll be looking at billions of birds making their southward journey to their non-breeding or wintering grounds," said Horton who helps runs the migratory bird forecasting website: https://birdcast.info/.

The team utilizes weather radars, the same that we use to detect thunderstorms to also track their feathery friends. That means sometimes radars are actually showing birds rather than actual showers. You'll sometimes hear meteorologist refer to this as "clutter" on the radar imagery.

"The rain we're accustomed to seeing on radar is really intense, it's quite dense and it shows up on a it shows up as a more stronger signal," Horton added. Precipitation typically shows up as reds and oranges on most radar scales, where birds return typically show up as blues and greens. Horton said you can look at the texture of the radar image to identify whether the radar is showing rain or animals like birds or insects. Storms typically have a more elongated shapes and are irregular. Birds return a smoother more consistent shape.

Horton said typically birds try and time their travels with the arrival of frontal systems to make their journey a little easier. He said you can watch birds wait for a system to pass, before hopping on the winds behind the front to avoid any dangerous weather and catching some help from mother nature.

For the middle of September, places like California, Texas, North Dakota, and Minnesota are all "hotspots" for migratory birds as they push further south.

You can learn more about how you can help migratory birds by simply turning off your lights here: https://birdcast.info/science-to-action/lights-out/