Bird Migration Paths
Bird migration routes or paths, also known as migration flyways run throughout North America. These flyways fall into four distinct areas and range from simple and easy to track, to extremely complicated. Bird migration paths are not always distinctly defined and some in fact have overlaps.
The Atlantic Flyway
The Atlantic migration path encompasses a good portion of the Atlantic Coast in the United States and drives westward to the Allegheny Mountains. It curves into a North West direction across West Virginia and into Eastern Ohio. It then takes a path across the prairie of Canada to the arctic coast of Alaska. Many birds, which breed east of the Alleghenies, move southwest in the fall. They cross the Gulf of Mexico into regions of Eastern Mexico. Many of these birds are land birds contrary to the fact they must cross vast open waters. Bird migration maps show the Ruby–throated hummingbirds migration takes them over the Gulf of Mexico as well.
The Mississippi Flyway
The Mississippi flyway encompasses one of the more direct routes running north and south from the Gulf of Mexico into Canada. The longest migration route of any in the western hemisphere involves the Mississippi flyway. This route primarily involves large numbers of ducks, geese, thrushes and blackbirds. Typically the North American land birds taking this flyway seek out winter homes in the tropics.
The Central Flyway
The Central Flyway as another simple, direct pathway through which migrating birds reach areas from Mexico to Canada. This flyway has the Missouri River as its eastern boundary. It follows up through the Midwest of the United States and curves to run along the base of the Rocky Mountains into Canada. The western boundary of this migration path serves as a breeding area for waterfowl at the northern end of Great Salt Lake in Utah.
The Pacific Flyway
The territory of the Pacific migration includes the arctic, including Alaska and the Aleutian islands, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific Coast regions of Canada and the United States and into Mexico. It then points south where it blends with other flyways in central and South America. The migratory foul that uses this flyway are primarily gulls, ducks, terns and various other waterfowl.