This migratory songbird note.

A yellow-green virio sings on its summer breeding grounds in Belize.

This migratory songbird looks remarkably like the red-eyed Virio, commonly seen in the eastern

U.S. with a bright white eyebrow and striking red eye.

In the fall, most yellow-green Vereos head to South America to wait out the winter months.

But wait, this particular Vereo is going north instead.

You're going the wrong way. You're going the wrong way!

You're going the wrong way!

What?

You're going the wrong way!

For reasons biologists don't fully understand, some birds change orientation,

often by a full 180 degrees and travel almost the same distance as the rest of their species,

but in the opposite direction. The phenomenon is called misorientation.

It's one of the most common errors in migration patterns among songbirds, especially those in their first year.

For this reason, every now and then, a wayward yellow-green Vereo ends up northward in, say, California.

Unfortunately, many of these birds that we call vagrants

never find their way back to their native range.

But some of the disoriented birds do eventually find the proper route, getting more comfortable with the journey each year.

For more about how to see rare migratory birds in your area, start at our website, bird note.org. I'm Mark Bramhill.

You're going the wrong way!