114 - Why Birds Get Lost: The Science of Vagrancy and Range Expansion

Buzz Blossom & Squeak — Be a Neighborhood Naturalist · May 21, 2026 · 21m

In July 2023, a volunteer doing routine piping plover counts at a Wisconsin wildlife area saw a flash of pink out of the corner of his eye. He stopped. He looked again. He started making phone calls. What he was looking at was a roseate spoonbill — a large, flamingo-pink wading bird with a spatula-shaped bill — last confirmed in the state in 1845. Within days, birders were driving from hundreds of miles away, fifty people showing up on a Saturday just to stand at the edge of a wetland and look at a bird that had no business being there.

So how does that happen? And what does it mean when it…