The Midcontinent Americas Flyway spans 135 degrees of latitude from Arctic Canada to the steppes of Patagonia and encompasses portions of the Americas that were not addressed in the Atlantic Flyway Shorebird Initiative business plan or in the Pacific Shorebird Conservation Initiative (PSCI) strategy. In Central America, the Atlantic Ocean coast (Belize to Panama) is included in the AFSI and the Pacific coast (Mexico to Panama) within the PSCI. Within the MSCI Framework’s scope, 16 countries and territories are represented (listed south to north): Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, France (French Guiana), Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

Given the size of the Midcontinent Americas Flyway, North and South America were each divided into multiple planning units. Bird Conservation Regions were used to delineate the Arctic and Boreal planning unit in Canada and Alaska, excluding coastal areas that were already included in the Pacific Americas Flyway. Temperate North America was divided into three major planning units: the Great Plains, the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Plain. In the United States, the western boundary of the Midcontinent Americas Flyway corresponds with the western edge of the administrative boundary of the Central Flyway Council, and its eastern boundary is generally the eastern boundary of the Mississippi Flyway Council. Within this area, the MSCI geographic scope was adjusted slightly by Bird Conservation Region boundaries, and upland forested ecosystems that provide little migrant shorebird habitat were removed.