The same considerations about barriers and detours that apply to long-distance land-bird migration apply to water birds, but in reverse: a large area of land without bodies of water that offer feeding sites may also be a barrier to a bird that feeds in coastal waters. Detours avoiding such barriers are observed: for example, brent geese Branta bernicla migrating from the Taymyr Peninsula to the Wadden Sea travel via the White Sea coast and the Baltic Sea rather than directly across the Arctic Ocean and northern Scandinavia.

What do water birds avoid while migrating?