Flyway Description

Site Admin Joined: 22 Mar 2008 Posts: 20

The Atlantic Flyway may be described as extending from the offshore waters of the Atlantic Coast west to the Allegheny Mountains where, curving northwestward across northern West Virginia and northeastern Ohio, it continues in that direction across the prairie provinces of Canada and the Northwest Territories to the Arctic Coast of Alaska. The flyway embraces several primary migration routes and many more that are important as tributaries, some of the latter being branches from primary routes of other flyways. The Atlantic Flyway route from the northwest is of great importance to migratory waterfowl and other birds some of which are flocks of Canvasbacks, Redheads and Lesser Scaups that winter on the waters and marshes south of Delaware Bay. The coastal route of the Atlantic Flyway, which in general follows the shore line, has its northern origin in the eastern Arctic islands and the coast of Greenland. This is a regular avenue of travel, and along it are many famous points for the observation of migrating land and water birds.

There is one route (not shown in image) that may be considered although it is so exclusively oceanic that it is included under "Pelagic Migration." This lane of travel passes directly over the Atlantic Ocean from Labrador and Nova Scotia to the Lesser Antilles, and across a group of small islands to the mainland of South America. It is not known to be used by any of the smaller land birds, but is followed by thousands of water birds and by shore birds of several species. Since it lies over the sea, this route is definitely known only as its terminals and from occasional observations that have been made in Bermuda and the Antilles. In the autumn, some of the shore birds that nest on the Arctic tundra of Mackenzie and Alaska fly southeastward across Canada to the Atlantic coast and finally follow this oceanic course to the mainland of South America.

Many of the birds that breed east of the Allegheny Mountains parallel to seacoast, move southwestward in fall, a direction they apparently maintain from northwestern Florida, crossing the Gulf to the coastal regions of eastern Mexico where they have a land route for the balance of the journey. A more direct route involving even longer flights lies directly across the Caribbean Sea, but despite that fact it is used almost entirely by land birds. After taking off from the coast of Florida, the migrants on this route find only two land masses in their course where they can pause for rest and food. Over 60 species cross the 150 miles from Florida to Cuba, where about half of them remain for the winter. Others fly the additional 90 miles between Cuba and Jamaica. From that point to the South American coast, there is a stretch of unbroken ocean 500 miles across, and scarcely a third of the North American migrants leave the forested mountains of Jamaica to risk the perils of this ocean trip.