It's Migration Time!

For many birds, however, their navigation systems fail, and they end up in totally different places than they intended. This can be due to weather, or some simple failure in the bird itself. This past spring, a Greater Plover from Asia accidentally landed on the California coast. This was the first known bird of its species to be seen in North America, so it was really lost! Many hundreds of bird watchers got a thrill, though, when they were able to see a species they would otherwise have to travel to Asia to see.

Depending on how the bird got to California, and how old it is (and whether it can get back to it's wintering grounds), perhaps next year it will return to California for the summer. Perhaps another bird will follow it, and they'll try to breed. That's one of the ways birds move into new areas - by problems with migration navigation.

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