Birdwatchers are in a frenzy over a recent discovery.
A rare sighting of a cuckoo bird on Long Island has drawn birdwatchers from near and far after a golfer made the unexpected find, according to reports.
Starting Thursday, enthusiasts journeyed from numerous states to the Vineyards Golf and Country Club in Riverhead. The excitement was sparked by the sighting of a “common cuckoo,” identified by Roy William Gardner as he navigated the golf course in a cart, CBS News reported.
This cuckoo, seen only four times in the mainland United States, hails from Europe and migrates to Africa for the winter months.
Gardner captured a photograph of the bird and sent the images to his nephew, an ornithologist from Cornell and currently a bird biologist at UCLA, the outlet shared.
“It’s incredible that my uncle, who isn’t a birder, managed to send a text message across the country,” his nephew, Christopher Sayers, commented to the outlet.
The wayward bird was quickly identified by experts at UCLA and Cornell.
“He said, ‘What you have there is called a lifer.’ He goes, ‘people go their whole lifetime and not see this,’” Gardner said of the conversation with his nephew.
After the word of the cuckoo spread to online rare bird communities, fanatics began to travel from far and wide.
Since then, there have been at least 213 recorded sightings of the cuckoo on the birding site, The Riverhead Times reported.
North Fork bird and bug enthusiast Jay Rand, who was one of the first to come to the scene, believed that the cuckoo “was probably trying to migrate and maybe got blown over by that nor’easter,” which occurred earlier in October, he recalled to the outlet.
Local farms and golf courses have also been accommodating birders onto their properties to spot the rare bird.
“This is an amazing find,” one birder exclaimed, according to CBS.
