Utah has a new birding challenge as the fall migration season begins

SALT LAKE CITY — Fall might be known for leaf peeping , but it’s also a great time to watch birds.

Billions of birds across North America are beginning their annual migration, including approximately a million that passed through Utah between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, according to the BirdCast Migration Dashboard . It estimates 14 million birds have passed through the state since Aug. 1, which is slightly below the state’s average for this point in the year.

Migration historically peaks between September and October, but nearly 80 million birds tend to pass through the Beehive State between August and November each year on their journey to their winter homes, per BirdCast data. These can be great distances, too, as birds Utah wildlife biologists banded in Utah have turned up i