and interpreted for more than 3,000 years. In Samoan tradition, for example, Tagaloa sent his daughter Sina to Earth in the form of a bird, Tuli, to find dry land, the word tuli referring specifically to land-finding waders, often to the Pacific golden plover.

Writings of ancient Greeks recognized the seasonal comings and goings of birds. Aristotle recorded that cranes traveled from the steppes of Scythia to marshes at the headwaters