It is an event that can be easily overlooked, because of the small size of most of the birds involved. Once seen, however, it is a sight worth looking out for every year.

The birds head north from their breeding territories in Victoria, southern NSW and even as far as Tasmania and make their way to winter feeding areas. These feeding areas vary from year to year and are dependent on where the trees are in blossom. Favourite destinations are the banksia heathlands of the NSW North Coast and the Box and Ironbark woodlands west of the Great Dividing Range.

The birds have recognised migratory pathways, the most famous being the Blue Mountains of NSW.

Here every year the volunteers from the Blue Mountains Bird Observers Club, work in shifts to count the birds during migration. Counts of more than 12000 birds an hour has been recorded here.

The flight path is determined by topography and vegetation and they fly up the deep valleys of the mountains to the plateau and then follow the creek lines, cliff tops and corridors of vegetation on their journey north.

In more recent years, a previously unknown flight path was discovered near Minmi, at Pambalong Nature Reserve a site now monitored by the Hunter Bird Observers Club.

The migrating birds spread out across the Maitland flood plains from Minmi and have been regularly seen in the trees along the highway at East Maitland and at Thornton.

This week, thousands of birds were observed flying in a stream, with great determination, through the treetops at Walka Water Works.

Mixed flocks contain mostly Yellow-faced Honeyeaters but Scarlet Honeyeaters, White-naped Honeyeaters, Pardalotes, Silvereyes, Noisy Friarbirds and even a few Grey Fantails have been spotted, to name just a few.

Flying mostly on fine sunny days with no wind, the largest numbers are seen between 9 and 11 each morning. They fly in short hops at tree top level, resting frequently and regrouping in the most prominent trees, before taking off again. Silvereyes frequently fly before dawn.

If you see any migrating birds, you can help track this event by counting for 20 mins and recording the results in Birdata at https://birdata.birdlife.org.au/

A great home isolation activity.