East Atlantic Flyway

{{Short description|Migration route used by many bird species}}

File:Eastatlanticflyway.png

The East Atlantic Flyway is a migration route used by about 90 million birds annually, passing from their breeding areas in the United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Siberia and northern Europe to wintering areas in western Europe and on to southern Africa.{{cite news|title=Naturalists set up 'air traffic control' network to save birds|work=The Independent|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/naturalists-set-up-air-traffic-control-network-to-save-birds-583077.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025033718/http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/naturalists-set-up-air-traffic-control-network-to-save-birds-583077.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 25, 2012|accessdate=2008-12-21 | location=London | first=Severin | last=Carrell | date=2003-10-12}}{{cite book|author1=Gerard Boere |author2=Colin A. Galbraith |author3=David Stroud |author4=L. K. Bridge |title=Waterbirds Around the World|year=2006|publisher=The Stationery Office|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4htx09cb-6gC&q=east+atlantic+flyway+iberian+peninsula&pg=PA541 | isbn=978-0-11-497333-9}} It is one of the eight major flyways used by waders and shorebirds.{{cite web|title=Waterbirds around the World|publisher=Joint Nature Conservation Committee|url=http://www.jncc.gov.uk/PDF/pub07_waterbirds_part1_flywayconcept.pdf|accessdate=2008-12-21}} The migrants follow a great circle route, which is shorter although more challenging.{{cite journal |url=http://www.imls.uzh.ch/static/CMS_publications/wehner/literatur/pdf01/wehner20018.pdf |title=Bird Navigation—Computing Orthodromes |last=Wehner|first=Rudiger |journal=Science |volume=291|issue=5502 |date=2001-01-12 |doi=10.1126/science.1058147 |pmid=11253217 |pages=264–265|s2cid=128509600 }} When avoiding the barriers created by the Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains, European honey buzzards were found to overcompensate for the winds they expected to encounter, and take a longer route than was necessary.{{cite journal |last1=Vansteelant|first1=Wouter M.G. |last2=Shamoun-Baranes|first2=Judy |last3=van Manen|first3=Willem |last4=van Diermen|first4=Jan |last5=Bouten|first5=Willem |year=2017 |title=Seasonal detours by soaring migrants shaped by wind regimes along the East Atlantic Flyway |journal=Journal of Animal Ecology |volume=86 |issue=2 |pages=179–191 |doi= 10.1111/1365-2656.12593 |pmid=27757959 |doi-access=free }}{{Cite book |last=Weidensaul |first=Scott |title=A world on the wing: the global odyssey of migratory birds |date=2021 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-60890-8 |location=New York}}

Wetlands International has identified key sites on the flyway in the project Wings Over Wetlands.{{cite web|title=Report on the Exchange Programme Planning Workshop|publisher=Wetlands International|url=http://wow.wetlands.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=tI%2FYqG2efFw%3D&tabid=153&mid=801&language=fr-FR|accessdate=2009-01-11}} Important sites on the flyway include:

• Lake Ladoga (northwestern Russia)
• Haapsalu, Matsalu (Estonia)
• Nemunas Delta (Lithuanian demonstration site)
• Wadden Sea (Netherlands, Germany, Denmark)
• Vendée Reserve (France)
• Doñana National Park (Spain)
• Merja Zerga (Morocco)
• Banc d'Arguin National Park (Mauritania)
• Diawling-Djoudj (Senegal, Mauritania)
• Saloum-Niumi (Senegal, Gambia)
• Archipel Bijagos (Guinea-Bissau)

The flyway attracted attention in the 2000s when birds using the route were found to have been carrying influenza A virus subtype H5N1, the causative agent of avian influenza ("bird flu").{{cite news|title=UK experts try to plot flight path for bird flu|work=The Scotsman|url=http://news.scotsman.com/birdflu/UK-experts-try-to-plot.2752178.jp|accessdate=2008-12-21|location=Edinburgh|first=Richard|last=Gray|date=2006-02-19}}