East African flyway

East African flyway
Name	East African flyway
Region	East Africa, Arabian Peninsula

East African flyway The East African flyway is a major avian migration corridor linking northern Eurasia and southern Africa by routes over the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Horn of Africa, and the Great Rift Valley. It connects breeding areas in Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Scandinavia, and Central Asia with wintering sites in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, and Madagascar, and involves coordination among institutions such as the Convention on Migratory Species, the Ramsar Convention, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, BirdLife International, and national agencies like the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Overview and Definition

The corridor is defined by seasonal movements of shorebirds, raptors, passerines, and waterfowl between temperate and tropical zones, linking regions including the Baltic Sea, White Sea, Caspian Sea, Aral Sea, Lake Baikal, Siberia, and the Ural Mountains with the East African Rift, Lake Victoria, Lake Turkana, and coastal wetlands of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Important stakeholders include the African Union, the European Commission, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and research centers at the University of Nairobi, Makerere University, University of Cape Town, Natural History Museum, London, and the American Museum of Natural History.

Geographic Extent and Key Routes

Major routes traverse the Bosphorus, pass through the Levant, cross the Sinai Peninsula, follow the Nile River corridor, and funnel through the Gulf of Aden into the Somali Current and along the Mozambican Channel. Stopover and staging areas include the Danube Delta, Ebro Delta, Camargue, Wadden Sea, Sønderborg Bay, Gulf of Finland, Kandalaksha Bay, Zhitkov Bay, Kurgalsky Peninsula, Rostov Oblast wetlands, Don River estuary, Lake Manyara, Mkuze Game Reserve, Lamu Archipelago, Tana River Delta, Kilifi Creek, Mtwara, and Zambezi Delta. Political and conservation frameworks span Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi.

Species and Migration Patterns

Key species using the corridor include the Sociable Lapwing, European Bee-eater, Amur Falcon, Steppe Eagle, Pallid Harrier, Marsh Harrier, Common Cuckoo, Barn Swallow, Red Knot, Curlew Sandpiper, Bar-tailed Godwit, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Black-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Terek Sandpiper, Little Stint, Greater Flamingo, Lesser Flamingo, Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover, Osprey, Peregrine Falcon, Common Crane, Demoiselle Crane, Black-winged Stilt, and African Skimmer. Migration strategies vary: some populations undertake long non-stop flights similar to records from the Bar-tailed Godwit across the Pacific Ocean analogy, while others use chain migration with stepwise staging in places such as the Wadden Sea, Gulf of Gabes, Lake Urmia, Aral Sea Basin, and Lake Chad. Phenology links to climatic oscillations influenced by the Indian Ocean Dipole, El Niño–Southern Oscillation, and Arctic weather patterns monitored by agencies like the Met Office, NOAA, and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

Ecological Importance and Habitats

Habitat types along the flyway include saltmarshes, mudflats, mangroves, inland freshwater wetlands, floodplains, montane forests, dry scrub, and arid steppe. Key ecological sites include the Yaoundé],], Mkuze, Sundarbans analogy for mangrove importance, Hargeisa, Juba River deltas, Lake Natron, Tsavo, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Serengeti, Masai Mara, Kidepo Valley National Park, Selous Game Reserve, Gorongosa National Park, Okavango Delta, Makgadikgadi Pans, Etosha National Park, and Madagascar's coastal wetlands. These habitats support trophic links to species like Tilapia in freshwater systems, Phytoplankton and Zooplankton in estuaries, and invertebrate prey including Crustacea and Polychaeta, sustaining migratory shorebird energetics studied by institutions such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Smithsonian Institution.

Threats and Conservation Measures

Threats include habitat loss from urban expansion in Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Kisumu, Beira, Maputo, Aden, and Djibouti City; wetland drainage for agriculture in Ethiopia and Sudan; pollution from ports like Jeddah and Alexandria; overfishing affecting food webs near Pemba Island and Zanzibar; illegal hunting linked to trade networks intersecting Somalia and Yemen; climate change impacts projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; and infrastructural hazards from wind farms in Eilat and powerline collisions documented near Addis Ababa and Nairobi. Conservation measures include designation of Ramsar sites, creation of transboundary protected areas such as initiatives by the East African Community and Southern African Development Community, species action plans under the Convention on Migratory Species, community-based conservation by NGOs like the Nature Conservancy and Fauna & Flora International, and policy support from the European Union and multilateral donors including the World Bank.

Research, Monitoring, and Management

Monitoring employs ringing schemes from institutions like the British Trust for Ornithology, satellite telemetry projects led by the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, light-level geolocator studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and coordinated surveys by networks such as the African-Eurasian Migratory Landbirds Project, the Global Flyway Network, and the Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas program run by BirdLife International. Data sharing occurs through platforms like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, collaborative workshops convened by the UNEP and IUCN, and capacity-building at universities including Addis Ababa University and Sokoine University of Agriculture. Management actions combine adaptive management, ecosystem-based approaches championed by the Convention on Biological Diversity, cross-border law enforcement supported by Interpol wildlife crime units, and livelihood programs involving partners such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature and United Nations Development Programme.

Category:Bird migration