The northern latitudes of the world is home during the breeding season for the Gyrfalcon. In North America, breeding is restricted to portions of northern, western, and southern Alaska, extreme northwestern British Columbia, the northern and central Yukon, northern Northwest Territories, the Arctic islands, and northern Quebec (Labrador).
Wintering occurs from the breeding range south, irregularly throughout Canada to the northern United States. Extremes of southern occurrence, infrequently, are to about the middle of California and the most northerly fringes of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma and then easterly to southern Kentucky and Virginia. Areas where at least some birds can be found year round include the southern parts of the Arctic archipelago, Alaska, and the northern continental parts of Canada.
Worldwide, the breeding range of the Gyrfalcon includes Greenland, Iceland, and the Eurasian mainland from Norway east throughout the former U.S.S.R.
MIGRATION
Southward movements do not include the whole population and are irregular from year to year and possibly geographically. Birds do not seem to go any farther south than necessary to find food, thus a pronounced regular pattern of migration does not occur. The exception is in juvenile birds that regularly move out of at least the higher latitudes. Migration patterns of ptarmigans within the northern latitudes affect responses by Gyrfalcons.
Movement from the Arctic archipelago occurs from late August onwards into early October, with birds moving into warmer regions of the Northwest Territories or Labrador for the winter. This movement precedes the major movement of ptarmigan by a few weeks so that the falcons are strategically positioned to intercept incoming prey. Regular fall movements are reported in northwestern Alaska. Birds reach southern Canada as early as mid-October, with similar arrival times in the northern United States. Big flight years south are presumably correlated with cyclical lows in the populations of northern ptarmigans. By the end of March or early April, birds are gone from the southern latitudes. Migration routes are not well-documented, but coastal movements in Alaska are well-known in the fall. Spring movements are not documented.
#Which species has this range?;question\Q12\Q12.wav
