13 May 2026

While we slept 3.88 million birds flew over Allegheny County last night! BirdCast’s Migration Dashboard as of 5:20am shows a huge jump in migration.

Here’s the rest of BirdCast’s Migration Dashboard for Allegheny County, PA showing data at 5:20am while the birds were still flying before dawn.

Will this huge amount of bird traffic translate into a lot of birds today? I have two answers to this.

1. Not a lot of birds: It seems that high migration means birds pass over and don’t land *and* that birds we had yesterday decided to leave. Interestingly, the Flight Direction and Speed graph shows fewer birds in flight at 5am but those birds sped up as if they had a destination outside our county and they were running out of time.
2. Yes, many new arrivals? Could be … but see the update below.

What just happened? The only way to find out is to get outdoors.

Meanwhile check out Birdcast’s Migration Dashboard for Allegheny County for daily statistics and the ever-changing list of expected birds.

UPDATE at noon on 13 May after a visit to Frick Park: Indeed most of the migratory birds left Frick Park and new ones did not arrive. News from friends who are birding at Presque Isle State Park and Magee Marsh Boardwalk say they suddenly have lots of warblers today.