Why do several species in this atlas also occur in North America?

A number of species covered in this atlas, including the mallard and the rock dove, have genuinely circumpolar or near-global distributions that include North America alongside Europe, Russia, and Asia, either through natural range or, in the rock dove's case, through long-established introduction, making them a useful bridge between this atlas's Old World focus and the North American section.

Why does the United States get the first country page under North America?

The United States was chosen as the region's initial country page for its combination of habitat diversity, spanning Arctic-influenced Alaska, temperate forest, prairie wetland, desert, and subtropical Florida, and its extensive, well-organized birdwatching community and monitoring infrastructure, giving a strong foundation to build further North American coverage from.

Is North America's bird fauna mostly separate from Eurasia's?

Largely yes — North America's songbirds in particular belong to many families found nowhere in Eurasia, but there is meaningful overlap in waterfowl, birds of prey, and a scattering of other groups, especially in Arctic and coastal regions where species or close relatives range across the Bering Strait between Russia's Far East and Alaska.

Bird Atlas

Birds of North America

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North America stretches from Arctic tundra to subtropical wetland, and shares a surprising number of species and close relatives with the Russia and Europe sections of this atlas.

A continent connected to Eurasia at its edges

North America spans an immense range of habitat, from Arctic tundra across northern Canada and Alaska through vast boreal forest, prairie grassland, temperate woodland, desert basins, and subtropical wetland in the far south. Much of this diversity belongs to bird families found nowhere else covered in this atlas, but the continent is not entirely separate from the Eurasian bird world featured throughout the Russia, Europe, and Asia sections: at its northwestern edge, Alaska sits only a narrow strait away from the Russian Far East, and several species with genuinely circumpolar or near-global ranges bridge the two continents directly.

This overview page focuses on those points of connection before country pages build out North America's own extensive and largely distinct bird fauna in greater depth.

Species shared with the rest of this atlas

The mallard is among the most striking examples of overlap, its native range spanning nearly the entire Northern Hemisphere including large parts of North America, where it remains one of the continent's most familiar and widespread ducks, just as it is across Europe and Russia. The rock dove, while not native to the Americas, has been introduced so widely and successfully that it is now a familiar sight in virtually every North American city, mirroring its ubiquity across Eurasian urban centers.

Beyond these direct overlaps, several bird families represented in this atlas by Eurasian species have close North American relatives occupying similar ecological roles, a pattern especially visible among waterfowl, raptors, and corvids, even where the specific species themselves differ between continents.

Seasonality

North America's seasonal bird patterns broadly mirror the temperate rhythms familiar from the Russia and Europe sections of this atlas: spring migration moves north from March through May, often along well-defined corridors known as flyways that funnel huge numbers of migrating birds along coastlines, river valleys, and mountain ranges, with breeding activity concentrated through May and June across most of the continent's temperate latitudes. Autumn migration reverses the pattern from roughly August through October, and the continent's southern reaches, including much of Florida and the Gulf Coast, support substantial wintering populations of species that breed much further north.

How this section will grow

The United States opens the country-level coverage under this region, chosen for its habitat range spanning Arctic-influenced Alaska to subtropical Florida, and for its extensive birdwatching and monitoring infrastructure that provides a strong documented foundation to build on. Further country pages, including Canada and Mexico, will be added over time to represent the continent's full range of habitats and migratory flyways, following the same gradual expansion approach used throughout this atlas.