Look Up,

Right now, thousands of migratory birds may be flying over you.

Some journey from the Arctic
to the Antarctic.

They don't know you exist,
but you share the same sky.

A field guide to the sky

Who are flying over me?

A living migration moment is taking shape around you. Choose a place to begin looking.

Showing approximate New York City, NY.
Above Us uses your location only to choose the approximate area to show. Your position is rounded to about a kilometer before anything is drawn, your exact location is never displayed, and nothing about your position is stored. Place searches are sent to our map provider, MapTiler, to find the place you type.
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Tonight above you

What might pass over your head tonight

Reading today’s sky…

You are part of this migration, too. Under the same sky.

How to read this map

Tonight’s passage · event bandSeasonal bird passage · dotted band (schematic)Seasonal butterfly passage · dotted band (schematic)Photo on a band · species reported nearby this weekRecent observation · eBirdRecent observation · GBIFButterflies · GBIFeBird hotspot
Where to look · New York City, NY

Where to meet them

Real places for observing birds and butterflies; presence is not guaranteed at any moment.

Central Park

Manhattan’s great green migration trap. The Ramble’s woods and thickets draw warblers, thrushes and other songbirds each spring and fall.

Official information ↗

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

A vast salt-marsh refuge on the Atlantic Flyway in Queens. Shorebirds, herons, osprey and wintering waterfowl.

Official information ↗

Prospect Park

Brooklyn’s big woodland park. Lookout Hill and the Vale are beloved stops for migrating warblers and raptors.

Official information ↗

Inwood Hill Park

Manhattan’s last old-growth forest above the Hudson. Hawks, woodpeckers and warblers pass through its ridges.

Official information ↗

Bryant Park

A one-block Midtown lawn with outsized fame among birders. Warblers, sparrows and even woodcock shelter here in the middle of the city.

Official information ↗
Share your sky

Make a postcard

Tonight's sky
● New York City, NY
Visit AboveUs.org to share your moment

A postcard from the sky above you. Pick one of tonight's birds, or use a photo of your own, with the place and the day you looked up. Send it as an image, or keep it with your postcards.

About the data

Every layer is labeled by what it is. A seasonal pattern shows where a species is expected in season. It is never a live position. A recent observation is a real, community-reported sighting, always shown with its date and source. Nothing on this page is a real-time animal location unless it is labeled Live, with its source and time.

Time range and source are shown with every layer as it is connected. Basemap: MapTiler · © OpenStreetMap contributors. Recent observations are live from eBird and GBIF. The dotted bands sketch the seasonal passage across this area, in autumn broadly southwest, and grow wider as more species are reported nearby. They are patterns, never sightings or tracked routes. A photo avatar resting on a band is a species reported nearby this week, placed on the band for readability, and its card says so. The small dots are the reported places themselves; a photo inside a dot’s card is the observed individual when its record includes one, and otherwise a credited photo of the species. Passage timing in the species stories comes from eBird Status and Trends models (Cornell Lab of Ornithology, data version 2023), summarized for New York State.

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