It is the season of spring. If you live in West Texas, you have probably seen several species of birds that aren't native to the Permian Basin.
However, it is not out of the ordinary. Around this time of the year, birds tend to migrate.
There are different flight patterns with birds that are native to North America. So, from time to time, people may see a bird migrating back up north. That's because they find a warm place to stay during the winter. And they'll use West Texas as a spot to rest.
After that, they'll continue migrating further south.
"And so you know where they they winter down where it's a lot warmer and what they'll do is as they're traveling, they'll need places to stop and rest as they continue on whether it's up into Canada, if it's a Canada goose or anywhere up north," said Jason Green, Zoo Midland director. "It's not uncommon to see those birds for very tiny windows, kind of like the monarch butterfly that you'll see for very short periods of time. Hummingbirds when they're on their route. You know along their migration. So this time of year, it is, you know, you may see kind of a few outliers, but it is it is common to see sort of those birds that you wouldn't see year round."
Green said seeing animals outside their native home can happen because of the weather patterns or maybe they got off course.
Animals' home ranges will expand and contrast based on different things from water levels and food availability based off environmental impacts.