An Explanation for Where Birds Disappear to During the Winter Months

It’s Okay to be Smart (previously) host Joe Hanson marks the coming of winter by explaining why birds in the northern hemisphere disappear when it starts to get cold outside. The migratory patterns we now understand weren’t always recognized by the scientific community.

In 1703 [Charles Morton] published a pamphlet claiming that the reason some birds disappear during the winter is because they were vacation on the moon. It really puts the “loon” in “lunar.”