Kyle Horton

Kyle Horton

@kyle-horton.bsky.social

radar, birds, and Betty (🐶) and Blanche (🐶). Associate Professor at Purdue University in Forestry and Natural Resources studying bird migration.

584 Followers 483 Following 21 Posts Joined Nov 2024
3 months ago
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Warblers borrow color-related genes from evolutionary neighbors, study finds | Penn State University A new study has uncovered several instances of wood warblers — some of the most colorful birds in North America — passing color-related genes to other wood warbler species, including those that are no...

BIG day for warbler genomes, with work led by @kevinfpbennett.bsky.social! Whole genomes nearly *every species* of warbler.

Warblers the most "Pokémon" of the bird world? Well, they're also trading their coloration genes like valuable collectors cards ...

www.psu.edu/news/eberly-...
🦉🧪

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3 months ago

Thanks Bart, glad to hear it. Simple indeed! Looking forward to seeing you all at IRAC next year.

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3 months ago

Check out the video below ⬇️ and then read the #OpenAccess study in our journal "Ecology"!
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

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3 months ago

Thanks Ben!

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3 months ago

Thanks! Appreciate the kind words, Tim.

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3 months ago

That's our hope. We estimated peak activity times and flight heights for all the radar locations - they're provided in the supplemental data. We output the values using a few different approaches to allow for different conservation decisions and policies.

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3 months ago

Take three minutes to look at pretty birds, explore radar data, and see how we connect the structure of skies to MacArthur's ideas of niche partitioning. 📡🐦☁️🎧

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3 months ago
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We churned through over 100 million radar samples to quantify the structure of migration through the airspaces across the United States: Just out in Ecology esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

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3 months ago

Pairing weather radars with eBird data for large-scale monitoring of swallow and martin communal roosts | doi.org/10.1093/orni... | Ornithological Applications | #ornithology 🪶

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4 months ago
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Using automated acoustic monitoring, citizen science, and centuries of ornithological research and understanding to quantify ecological integrity at scale.

The BirdsPlus Index, a novel method for assessing site-level conservation values.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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4 months ago
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Interested in how animals use the sky? 🌌

I’m recruiting a PhD student (Fall 2026, Purdue University) to study Purple Martin flight behavior and airspace use using barometric transmitters.

Details ➡️ jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu/view-job/?id...
#Aeroecology #AvianEcology

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5 months ago
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Another massive movement of migratory birds underway tonight — nearly 1 Billion Birds! With the full moon, you might be able to see some silhouettes zipping by. You can make your own flow maps here (just hit record): aeroecolab.com/uslights

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5 months ago

I don’t recall for that night, but you can see densities here: aeroecolab.com/uslights. You can hover on any of the radar sites and it’ll show traffic rates, speed, direction, and flight heights.

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5 months ago
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Truly impressive number of birds migrating tonight. More than 800 MILLION birds up in the air right now❗ #BirdMigration

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5 months ago
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7-Day Bird Migration Forecast

We’re entering the peak of fall migration across most of the U.S. Hundreds of millions of birds are on the move, with Thursday and Friday forecast to be the biggest nights of the season so far — over 400 million birds predicted to be taking flight.

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6 months ago

Looks like this was caused by the passing weather system. While we try to filter to just birds, it’s not always perfect.

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6 months ago

Lots and lots and lots of birds taking off tonight. Here's what things look like detected by the Milwaukee radar (KMKX): Night of September 3, 2025.

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6 months ago

Migration is roaring across the Midwest tonight! Check out the real-time flow visualization to watch it unfold: aeroecolab.com/uslights

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6 months ago
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Tonight’s forecast: 304 million birds expected to migrate across the U.S. 🕊️📡
The Upper Midwest is especially active – keep an eye on the skies and consider going “Lights Out” to help reduce risks for nocturnal migrants.
#BirdMigration #LightsOut #Midwest

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6 months ago
Night of August 25, 2025
Chicago
Rockford
Aurora
10.1 M birds flying over Illinois
Birds forecast over city area
29.8 K Chicago
10.5 K Rockford
6.3 K Aurora
Lights out alert level
None Low Med
High

aeroecolab.com/illinois
turn off non-essential outdoor lighting from 11 pm–6 am & close shades to reduce skyglow for migrating birds

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8 months ago
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Combining weather radar data with environmental data, @birgenhaest.bsky.social and co-authors found that peak roosting phenology of migrating martins and swallows in the Great Lakes region is paced by both local and distant conditions. Read more on doi.org/10.1111/geb....

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8 months ago

📡 Why do Martins and Swallows pass by the Great Lakes when they do - Great collaboration with Yuting Deng and @kyle-horton.bsky.social. @biodiversa.eu 📡

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8 months ago

Just over two weeks left to apply

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9 months ago
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1. Did you know that the Corn Belt in the Midwest USA is so vast you can see it from space? 🌽 How would this affect billions of migrating songbirds passing through each year? 🐦 Check out our new study in @conbiology.bsky.social
to find out! 🧵1/8 conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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9 months ago
Assessing the Corn Belt as an anthropogenic barrier to migrating landbirds in the United States You have to enable JavaScript in your browser's settings in order to use the eReader.

What to learn more? #BirdMigration #Conservation
Check out our full study in @conbiology.bsky.social
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/RCKH33...
Or read this great article by Kathi Borgmann summarizing these findings: news.cornell.edu/stories/2025....
@cornellbirds.bsky.social

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9 months ago

Grateful to collaborate with an amazing team on this work. @jbuler.bsky.social, Adriaan Dokter, @kyle-horton.bsky.social, @emlbcohen.bsky.social, Dan Sheldon, Jaclyn Smolinsky, and David Wilcove.

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10 months ago
Lights Out alert map for the U.S. showing almost all the states in some level of needing lights out for birds.

Lots of Lights Out alerts tonight as we come into the mad rush that is Maygration.
#birds #spring #migration #LightsOutForBirds

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10 months ago

The birds won’t disappoint!

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10 months ago
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Spring is for the grouse and chickens! Colorado leks have been 🔥🔥🔥 (w/@carburt.bsky.social). Greater Sage-Grouse and Greater Prairie-Chickens 📷

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11 months ago
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Birds will be arriving soon! This map shows peak migration dates across the US modeled using radar data. Keep in mind, the dates represent peaks, but migration usually plays out across a couple of weeks, so estimate ± 1 week on either side of the dates on the map for max migration activity.

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