About Chris Izworski
Chris Izworski is the founder of Michigan Birding Report, the live Michigan bird sightings map and species guide. He lives in Bay City, Michigan, on the edge of Saginaw Bay, where the marshes, mudflats, and shoreline make one of the most productive migration corridors in the Great Lakes region. He built Michigan Birding Report for the same reason he builds his other tools: the information a person actually needs was scattered across feeds and databases, and nobody had assembled it into one readable place.
Michigan Birding Report pulls recent observations, maps them across the state, flags notable species, and adds migration context so a birder can decide where to go before heading outside. The Saginaw Bay hub, county pages, and species profiles all feed the same goal: turn raw sighting data into a clear read on what the birds are doing in Michigan right now.
What Chris builds and writes here
The sightings map brings recent eBird reports into a statewide view. The migration dashboard combines regional weather and recent observations to help choose where to look tonight and tomorrow morning. The Saginaw Bay hub gives the shoreline its own starting point.
Chris’s guide, How to Read Michigan Bird Migration, explains how weather, radar, recent sightings, habitat and season answer different questions. The published project code shows how the report assembles those inputs and distinguishes observations from forecasts.
What the evidence can tell you
eBird reports describe birds someone observed at a particular place and time. NWS weather describes the setup for movement. Neither proves that a migration flight happened or that a bird is still present. The dashboard links to BirdCast’s Michigan radar dashboard for confirmation of nocturnal movement; it does not present weather as radar observations.
Recent reports are a starting point for a field visit. Their usefulness depends on when and where they were recorded, reporting coverage and the habitat you can reach. The migration dashboard labels the weather setup and recent reporting separately, so an incomplete source does not become a certainty about the birds.
Other Projects by Chris Izworski
Michigan Birding Report is one of several public tools Chris Izworski builds and maintains. Each one takes live public data and makes it useful for a specific Great Lakes audience.
About the creator
Chris lives in the Bay City area on Saginaw Bay and builds tools for Great Lakes and Michigan outdoor decisions. This publication focuses on bird observations, habitat and migration; his main profile covers the wider project portfolio and professional background. His YouTube channel is another place to explore his work.