OHIO — Each night, millions of birds take flight on their migratory journeys, and people may follow their paths in real time on The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Birdcast migration dashboard. 

Birds may travel a few hundred or even thousand miles on their quest for resources like food or nesting sites.

Spring is a busy time, as approximately171,100 birds flew over Ohio from April 28 at 8:30 p.m. to April 29 at 6:30 a.m. During the peak of Spring migration, 500 million birds fly over the continental U.S. in a single night. 

Birdcast uses U.S. weather surveillance radars to monitor bird migrations, and recently made its real-time data available to the public.

“[The radars] happen to be particularly sensitive for the kinds of objects in the atmosphere that are the size and shape of birds,” said Dr. Andrew Farnsworth, a senior research associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 

The data offers estimates of the number of birds migrating at night, their direction, speeds and altitudes.

While it’s not completely understood how birds navigate, it’s believed they use information from the stars and earth’s magnetic field, among other factors. However, light pollution can disorient birds and disrupt their paths.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and others recommend reducing unnecessary lights at night, particularly from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. during peak migration periods.