Sometimes migration doesn't go quite right for a bird...like the Dickcissel (a Midwestern prairie bird) that showed up in Bethel, Alaska.

Listen to this radio story as a local birder relives finding this out-of-place bird and learn more from Alaska wildlife experts about how birds wind up off course during migration:

There’s a good view of the activity from the old wooden porch in front of the house. Kevin Morgan can often be found here, studying the birds with his binoculars. That’s what he was doing on Aug. 14, when something unusual caught his eye. At first, he thought the small brownish bird was either a juvenile white crown sparrow or a tree sparrow. It can be hard to tell the difference.

“And then it looked up and turned its head and it was something that I’d never seen before in my life,” Morgan said.