(ORDO NEWS) — An Arctic owl has been sighted in Southern California for the first time in over 100 years. Scientists cannot explain how she traveled over 3,000 km.
The white-tipped owl lives in the Arctic and has been spotted sitting on the roof of a house in a southern town surrounded by palm trees.
Bird watchers from across the state arrived at the site to make sure it was an Arctic owl, one of about 30,000 left in the world.
As reported by CNBC, it remains a mystery how the bird flew so far south. Experts suggest that she arrived by ship or may have escaped from captivity.
Arctic owls spend most of their time in the Arctic Circle, in northern Canada or Alaska.
Sometimes they remain in their habitats all year round, and sometimes they migrate in winter to southern Canada and the northern half of the United States.
Scientists say that birds sometimes fly onto ships and can travel considerable distances in this way.
Arctic owls depend on a population of lemmings – arctic rodents. They form the main diet of birds. If the lemming population declines, the owls are forced to migrate.
According to the researchers, many of the birds observed by the Americans are juveniles making their first migration.
Thus, global warming and anthropogenic impact on the nature of the Arctic forces owls to move south in search of food.
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