Flyway Description

Site Admin Joined: 22 Mar 2008 Posts: 20

The Pacific Flyway includes the Arctic archipelago as Melville, Banks and Victoria islands from which region the eastern boundary tends to the southwest between Great Bear and Great Slave lakes to the western boundary of the Central Flyway along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains in Canada. The territory of this flyway, comprises the western Arctic, including Alaska and the Aleutian Islands and the Rocky Mountain and Pacific coast regions of Canada, the United States and Mexico, south to where it becomes blended with other flyways in Central and South America.

The passage of gulls, ducks and other water birds at Point Barrow, Alaska and at other points on the Arctic coast may be the best defined Arctic route in North America. This route across the Alaska Peninsula and the Gulf of Alaska and parallels the coast line of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California. The Pacific oceanic route is used by the Arctic Terns that breed in Alaska and those from the more western tern colonies of Canada. The vast delta region of the Yukon River in Alaska is a breeding ground for many species of waterfowl and this area marks the northern terminus for some of those that use the coastal route for most of all of their migratory flights.

The longest and important route of the Pacific Flyway is that originating in northeastern Alaska and passing for most, if not all, of its length through the interior. Most of the waterfowl that travel the United States section of this route come from Alaska and the Mackenzie Valley and other interior areas. Starting in Alaska, Yukon and Mackenzie, this route runs southward through western Alberta. The Pacific Flyway element apparently closely parallels the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Near the international border, the route branches and while large flights continue southeastward into the Central and Mississippi flyways, others turn southwestward across northwestern Montana and the panhandle of Idaho, follow along the Snake and Columbia River valleys and then turn southward across central Oregon to the interior valleys of California. Suitable winter quarters for birds are found in California from the Sacramento Valley south to Salton Sea and in the tidal marshes near San Francisco Bay.

The southward route of migratory land birds of the Pacific Flyway that in winter leave the United States extends through the interior of California to the mouth of the Colorado River and on to the winter quarters that are principally in western Mexico.