West Pacific Flyway

The West Pacific Flyway is a bird migration route that stretches from New Zealand and the east coast of Australia, northwards through the central Pacific Ocean, including Papua New Guinea, eastern Indonesia and the Philippines, the east coast of northern Asia, including Japan and the Korean Peninsula, and ending at the Bering and Chukchi Seas encompassing easternmost Siberia (including the Chukotka and Kamchatka Peninsulas) and the Alaskan Peninsula.

It overlaps along its western margin with the East Asian - Australasian Flyway, and at its north eastern extremity with the Central Asian Flyway in the vicinity of Wrangel and Herald Islands.

The West Pacific Flyway covers a large number of Pacific islands including the American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Hawaii, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, the Pitcairn Islands, the Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, the Wallis and Futuna Islands and Western Samoa.

Pacific Flyway

The Pacific Flyway is a major north-south flyway for migratory birds in America, extending from Alaska to Patagonia. Every year, migratory birds travel some or all of this distance both in spring and in fall, following food sources, heading to breeding grounds, or travelling to overwintering sites.

Any given bird species travels roughly the same route every year, at almost the same time. Ornithologists and "bird lovers" can often predict to the day when a particular species will show up in their area.

Notable locations

Along the Pacific Flyway, there are many key rest stops where birds of many species gather, sometimes in the millions, to feed and regain their strength before continuing. Some species may remain in these rest stops for the entire season, but most stay a few days before moving on.

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east.

At 165.25 million square kilometers (63.8 million square miles) in area, this largest division of the World Ocean—and, in turn, the hydrosphere—covers about 46% of the Earth's water surface and about one-third of its total surface area, making it larger than all of the Earth's land area combined.

The equator subdivides it into the North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, with two exceptions: the Galápagos and Gilbert Islands, while straddling the equator, are deemed wholly within the South Pacific. The Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres (35,797 ft).

The eastern Pacific Ocean was first sighted by Europeans in the early 16th century when Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and discovered the great "southern sea" which he named Mar del Sur. The ocean's current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacifico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means "peaceful sea".