As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday, 19 November 2015

Rare bird spotted in Minnesota, last sighting reported 21 years ago

By Nathan Bowe on Nov 15, 2015 at 7:45 p.m.


DETROIT LAKES, Minn. -- The crowds have been gathering at a rural Becker County farm recently for a rare sight in these parts.

A peculiar, brilliantly, bright red bird caught the eye of Steve Roberts, who lives seven miles east of Richwood. The bird was just hanging out in his yard.

“It looked weird -- I’m no bird expert, but I didn’t think I’d ever seen it before,” said Roberts, who got a better look at it the next day and was certain he had never seen anything like it.

When his wife, Patrice, came home that evening, she saw it sitting in her garden.
“And I thought, ‘Hmm, when did I buy that cutsie, little ornament?’” said Patrice. “But then I saw it fly away.”

Although the Roberts aren’t what they’d describe as “birders,” they do feed them and watch them in their yard, and they wanted to know what this thing was. Their curiosity was really perked when two of them showed up.

“They’re just beautiful, delicate little things,” said Steve, who called Wildlife Biologist Wayne Brininger, who, based on the description, began rattling off possibilities over the phone for the Roberts to look up on their iPad.

“He was naming them off, and as I looked them up I was like, ‘no, no, no’ ” said Steve. “And then he paused and said, ‘What about a Vermilion Flycatcher?’ and so I looked that up and boom -- that was exactly it.”


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