Flyways—the life giving, ancient pathways for birds from their breeding grounds to wintering areas—are an integral part of the bird migration story.
The Pacific Americas Flyway, spanning from Alaska to the tip of South America, supports millions of migratory birds. Western Sandpiper, Pacific Loon, Pacific Brant, and hundreds of other species follow this general north-south route in spring and fall. Some of our other breeding birds, such as Sandhill Crane, Lesser Scaup and White-fronted Goose, migrate further to the east along the Central or Mississippi Flyways.
The Bar-tailed Godwit, Pacific Golden Plover, and Bristle-thighed Curlew, among others, take a different route and travel the West Pacific and East Asian-Australasian Flyways. These journeys take them across vast stretches of the Pacific Ocean.
World Flyway Map
Some birds cannot be pinned down to one or even two flyways. The Blackpoll Warbler breeds in the boreal forest, then migrates east across Canada before dropping south to the Atlantic Ocean and over to South America, and the Northern Wheatear visits both Alaska and Africa during its annual migration.
Wherever they land, birds need healthy habitats to sustain them. Pacific Birds is working with partners to assess where those habitats are and to identify the key conservation actions that will allow our birds to continue making their epic migrations.
Flyway News
MOTUS @ Willapa Bay
Thanks to local connections and interest, an existing tower near Willipa Bay, Washington has been upgraded to a MOTUS tower that will help track migratory birds.
A New Paper Comes Out of the Migratory Shorebird Project
A paper recently published in Avian Conservation and Ecology describes the Migratory Shorebird Project, an innovative, hypothesis-driven approach to counting shorebirds along the Pacific flyway.
A Snapshot of the Fraser Estuary’s Avian Diversity
Birds Canada, a BirdLife International IBA partner, held a bird count within the Fraser River Estuary IBA in November. Forty-seven counters saw 129 bird species and 232,500 individuals.
