• EAST COAST: The spring migration of Neotropical migrants peaks during May in most parts of the United States and southern Canada. In the Northeast, peak flights occur following the passage of a warm front, when the birds have a tail wind from the South or Southwest. Birds are most often seen when they are forced down by inclement weather, such as when their night's flight takes them to or past the front itself and they encounter fog or light rain. Several parks in large cities--oases of green surrounded by miles of glass and concrete--concentrate the migrants and are extremely popular with local birders.  
• Some of the best known of these sites include Central Park in Manhattan and Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston. 
• Lesser known urban migrant hot spots include Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., Ridley Creek State Park and Carpenter's Woods (Fairmont Park) in Philadelphia, Forest Park (Queens) and Prospect Park (Brooklyn) in New York, and Swan Point Cemetery near Providence, Rhode Island.

• GREAT LAKES: The Great Lakes region richly deserves its reputation for being the most consistent area for witnessing large numbers of passerine migrants during the middle two weeks of May. The immense size of the lakes is an inhospitable sight to transient' cuckoos, flycatchers, thrushes, vireos, warblers, tanagers, grosbeaks, buntings, sparrows, and orioles. Large concentrations of these species may occur at certain favored shoreline locations, particularly at the tips of peninsulas. Local weather conditions play a major role in shaping the flights of migrants. 
• Some excellent choices include Point Pelee, Long Point (mostly off-limits), and Prince Edward Point in Ontario; Crane Creek State Park in Ohio; several lakefront parks near downtown Chicago and nearby Gary and Hammond, Indiana; and Whitefish Point in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 
• Additional sites have been "discovered" during the past few years, such as Tawas Point, Michigan.

• NORTH-CENTRAL PRAIRIES: The prairie and pothole habitats of North and South Dakota, eastern Montana, and southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan are at their finest during late May and June. The grasslands are alive with nesting specialties, such as Sharp-tailed Grouse, Upland Sandpiper, Long-billed Curlew, Sprague's Pipit, Baird's and Grasshopper Sparrows, and McCown's (local) and Chestnut-collared Longspurs. The wetlands are the breeding grounds for a substantial percent of the continent's waterfowl, as well as for large numbers of grebes, American White Pelicans, Black and Forster's Terns, and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, plus smaller numbers of the sought-after Yellow Rail, Sedge Wren, and Le Conte's and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows. 
• Some of the finest habitat can be found at Des Lacs NWR and Lostwood NWR in North Dakota, Sand Lake NWR in South Dakota, Bowdoin NWR in Montana, and near Brandon and Melita in southwestern Manitoba.

• KANSAS: Huge numbers of migrant shorebirds stage during May in central Kansas. 
• The prime sites are Cheyenne Bottoms state wildlife area and Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. Water levels at both sites are critical and are at the mercy of varying year-to-year precipitation amounts and local water (irrigation) policy and management practices. Some years there is so little water available that the birds are forced to go elsewhere. These areas are good places to find several species that primarily use a mid-continent route in spring, including American Golden-Plover, Hudsonian Godwit, and Baird's, White-rumped, and Buff-breasted Sandpipers.

• GREAT BASIN/OREGON: The little-explored Great Basin and Mojave Desert regions offer excellent birding for western migrant passerines during May, such as MacGillivray's Warbler, and for local breeders in June. A number of desert oases dot the arid landscape, supporting a growth of trees, such as willow, poplar, Russian olive, and cottonwood. Such groves or lines of trees may be found along streams and rivers, at springs, at roadside rest stops, and in ranch yards and small towns. 
• Some of the best public-access migrant traps include Morongo Valley and Butterbredt Spring in southeastern California; Corn Creek (Desert Game Range refuge headquarters) just north of Las Vegas and a roadside rest-stop just west of Tonopah, Nevada; Beaver Dam Wash in extreme southwestern Utah; and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters and the small hamlet of Fields in southeastern Oregon.

• ALASKAN ISLANDS: At a far-flung extremity of North America, in western Alaska, are several offshore islands prized by birders for both their regularly occurring Alaskan specialties and their ability to attract wayward migrant strays from East Asia. 
• The best known of these destinations are Attu Island in the western Aleutians, Gambell on St. Lawrence Island in the northern Bering Sea, and St. Paul Island in the Pribilofs of the central Bering Sea. A few hundred birders travel to one or more of these places every year, and at great expense, in the hopes of finding such species. 

Nesting and migrant seabirds are usually spectacular: huge numbers of Northern Fulmars, cormorants, kittiwakes, and some sixteen species of alcids (murres, guillemots, murrelets, auklets, and puffins) can be found, as well as Emperor Geese, up to four species of eiders, and five species of loons. The Asian migrants, comprising both waterbirds and landbirds, are largely from northernmost Japan and eastern Siberia; some occur regularly in small numbers, others are lost waifs that occur only rarely, particularly after major storms from the West move through the area.