When Will New Birds Get Here?

Yellow-throated warbler (photo by Steve Gosser)

14 April 2025

Last weekend in Pittsburgh we were reminded that migration really is heating up when at least five rare water birds were present in Allegheny County and Moraine State Park. Birders chased for a glimpse of the barnacle goose (who was on the move yesterday and may have left last night), a flock of red-necked loons in non-breeding plumage, a single red-necked grebe, an arctic tern, and a small flock of American white pelicans on Lake Arthur. There may have been others. The alerts were intense.

And now there’s a selection of early warblers in the area: Louisiana waterthrush, pine, yellow-throated and yellow-rumped warblers.

Now’s the time to start checking birdCast.info to help you find the birds. The tools include:

Migration Dashboard: Find out which species are expected soon in your county!
Bird Migration Forecast Maps: Forecast for the next 3 nights, contiguous U.S.
Live bird migration maps: Watch a single night of migration across the U.S.
Local Bird Migration Alerts. You choose the city. See tonight’s forecast. Sign up for high intensity migration alerts for city(s) of your choice.

This morning’s Migration Dashboard for Allegheny County shows that last night was the most intense night so far this spring. We’d been seeing low migration for 12 days, then last night almost a million birds passed overhead. Reality Check: Lots of birds passing overhead often means they didn’t stop here. 🙁

There is also a new tool that tells you the Peak Spring Bird Migration Periods for 1,000 U.S. Cities. This small-size map, embedded from that report, is just a tease for the details you’ll find when you scroll down at this link.