Asian–East African Flyway

The Asian–East African Flyway[fn 1] is a group of well-established routes by which many species of birds migrate annually between mid-Palearctic breeding grounds in Asia and non-breeding sites in eastern and southern Africa.

[1] The flyway covers an area of 56,731,881 square kilometres (21,904,302 sq mi) and spans 64 countries from South Africa and Madagascar to Eastern Siberia and Alaska.

The birds usually migrate quickly from the Palaeartic to northeast Africa, reaching Ethiopia or Northern Sudan by late August or September.

Some birds then remain in northern Africa for most of the fall before heading south either via Uganda and the Lake Victoria basin or via the Kenyan highlands.

The Amur falcon breeds in northeastern Asia and overwinters in southern Africa, making a round-trip journey of 22,000 kilometres (14,000 mi).

In late November the falcons cross India and fly in great flocks 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) over the Indian Ocean to Somalia and Kenya.

The local human population is dense and growing, and hunts waterbirds in large numbers as a source of protein when fish stocks are low.