Coming Soon to a Sky Near You: 500 Million Birds

Birds are on the move as their annual spring migration begins. Radar tracking allows you to follow along to see what birds are flying overhead as the birds move to their summer feeding grounds.

“The movements are massive,” said Andrew Farnsworth, a migration ecologist at Cornell University who works with the university’s ornithology lab. “On a big night in the spring, you’re talking 450 to 500 million birds flying under cover of darkness.”

It’s a time of year when local birds that went south for the winter return or birds heading farther north stop to feed.

“Right now we’re seeing lots of movement in Florida and the Southeastern United States as well as in some midwestern states,” Farnsworth said.