Introduction and two tools - Birdcast and eBird

Have you ever wondered how some folks seem to have more knowledge on what birds are migrating and when they may arrive? You can also join this crowd by using some of the tools mentioned in this blog post.

Introduction

There are three types of bird movements, with one being “local,” another “dispersal” and the last being “migration.” Local movements involve mostly just daily activities foraging for food or finding nesting locations. Dispersal on the other hand involves movements by birds from the local area from which they hatched and to find a different breeding location. Additionally, sometimes a localized environment can only support so many birds and competition can force birds to seek other locations in the same general area.

Whether a bird stays in an environment or pursues the migratory strategy, either decision has its own benefits as well as cost. While migration harbors great risks, weathering a harsh Winter environment with limited food resources also has its own risks.

Migration is typically a movement by birds to and from their breeding grounds. Birds typically migrate to find more suitable habitat or environment as seasons change, (typically being Spring and Fall) as some of their food sources may be more limited as seasonal weather variations may limit growth of their food source or insects die off. According to some sources, only about 19% of all birds migrate. And even within species, not all birds of a particular species choose to migrate. Additionally, natural selection can play a role as some species just aren’t suited for long-distance migratory journeys. These migrations take a tremendous toll on the species that pursue it and sadly, not all birds that start the journey make it to their destination.

In this blog, we are mostly going to concentrate on tools that may be useful to helping track birds that choose the migration strategy. As it is in the migration we all sometimes have the opportunity to see different birds that aren’t in our locale year round. In fact a number of birders travel to different locations to go view these birds as they begin their movements. Hopefully, the tools provided below will be useful to you to allow you to do the same. Please feel free to use the comments to let us know how you may either better utilize the tools provided below or what other tools you have found that you can share with us!

Resource Tool #1

Birdcast - https://birdcast.info/https://birdcast.info/

Birdcast is an amazing collaboration of a LOT of groups (Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Oregon State University, was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and Leon Levy Foundation.to coordinate Weather surveillance radar, with contributions from eBirders and flight calls of nocturnal migrating birds (BirdVox,)…among others. See the website for a full listing.

This is an example of some of the heat maps that provides a geographic illustration of the intensity of the migration.

Here is another tool provided by Birdcast which is a live migration map. More information about how to read these maps to make optimal use of this amazing tool.

Lastly, you can even dial in more local info for local migration bird alerts. Just input your location and you get something like the following:

In conclusion, Birdcast is a great macro tool to help you with the larger picture of bird movement, even down to a local level. It’s a great tool!

Resource Tool #2

eBird - https://ebird.org/home

eBird is an excellent tool that relies on eBird members to report birds they have seen. This provides even more of a local perspective and reporting to provide which birds of the migrating birds are being recorded. This tool is available both using the link above or as an app that can be used in the field.

I am no expert in using these applications but I can put forth the way that I use this tool. I invite other more experienced eBird members to comment on more optimal ways of using either the web page version or the phone app.

Let’s first look at use of the web version. I use this on my computer when at home as a part of my research to determine where I want to go to photograph or film birds.

Next, click on: ”Explore Hotspots.” You will be presented with a world map. Click and drag the map and put the area you want to investigate in the middle of the screen.

In this case I wanted to look north of Birmingham, Alabama, where I am located to see if Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are migrating down towards Birmingham. Then zoom in and get to a level to see local bird location reporting. There is a color code with cooler colors being a lower sighting spot, and the pin colors warm up as sightings increase , with yellow being medium and red being a hot-spot. There is a legend on the right of the page that helps interpret pin color. Also, you can hover your cursor over each pin and source the name of the spot in case you are wanting to go there.

I picked the Swan Creek location and wanted to view details to look to see if any Rose-breasted Grosbeaks sightings were reported.

I scrolled down the list of birds seen, looking for Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and here’s what I find:

Lucky me, I see number 52 is listed a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. And even more forunate for me, the eBirder, added a comment.

So, today the 17th of September that I am conducting my search, I see that on September 10th this bird was at Swan Creek. I could go there and maybe see some of these birds or I can hope that they have flown further south over a weeks period of time. But great information!

One note about using eBird is that they want you to set up an account online so the program or app can collect on your behalf your personal lists to compile overall statistics for not only your use, but the information is rolled up for use in research for the greater good. Some folks don’t like having to put personal information into a program and I get it. I think there may be a way to log in as an anonymous birder or use false information. Anyway, I wanted to get that out in the open.

Another criticism is that if you are out of internet cell coverage, that the app and its companion Merlin ID app won’t work in the field. I have not experienced this, before, but others apparently have. They mention that other birding apps have full functionality with no internet such as Mitch Waite’s iBird apps. (which is an app that I have and use. This app is also covered below.

Illustrated below is the home screen of the eBird app. You can either open your lists by selecting the “My eBird” selection. If you want to check out new locations, select the “Explore” option.

After clicking the Explore selection, you are presented with a view of local locations around your current location. Spots are color coded red that have been visited in the last 7 days. You can zoom in to get more granular locations, especially in a high density sighting location area. To search outside your local area, you need to click on the “Edit” button in the top right of the screen.

This is the screen presented after clicking the “Edit” selection. Click in the “Radius From:“ place that has your current location and key in the location where you want to research.

In this case, I typed in Decatur, AL and was presented the following screen. Clicking on a pin presents the name of the spot or site.

Clicking on the “Details” tab present a listing of the species observed , I suspect in reverse chronological order..

If you want to search a particular species at a site, then type in the bird’s name or partial name and the species will appear if in the list. In this case, I was searching in this North Alabama area for the Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the sighting was displayed. It is interesting that the app appears to have a search function at the site level whereas the web version does not???? Also note that the app had a button for directions from where you currently are located. This is an awesome feature! Obviously, an internet connection from your phone is required.

Conclusion

This first installment blog introduces two tools that one can use for seasonal migration research. Hopefully, this will be helpful to you. The next blog post will address two more tools. Please feel free to let us know how you use the tools in this post, as I’m sure that there are more optimal ways to use these tools that we could all benefit from. Let’s hear from you in the comment section below. Thanks for your support and God bless you and yours!