Rare tropical bird found in Scott State Park, Kansas

Salina Post
Thu, 14 May 2015 14:56 UTC

© Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism

The piratic flycatcher found in Scott State Park

Chris Lituma, a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Tennessee's Institute of Agriculture, had no idea a fleeting trip to Kansas would result in a monumental discovery. Lituma, according to a media release from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, was leading a group of students through a multi-state field study, including a stop in Scott City. Friend, and Kansas-native, Mike Hudson, had recommended Scott State Park just north of Scott City to Lituma as a good place to go birdwatching - a hobby of Lituma's for the past 11 years. Upon arrival, Lituma began helping students identify the various birds, but one bird in particular was no ordinary migrant.

"The students asked me 'hey, what's this bird?' and I briefly looked at it and assumed it was a black-headed grosbeak," said Lituma.

Students then looked up the grosbeak in a field guide to find it was not the same bird they were looking at.

"At that point, I took another look at the bird and almost immediately realized this was no grosbeak, this was something very special; something rare.

Lituma thumbed through one of his field guides but was unable to find the family of birds he thought the bird belonged to. He then grabbed a National Geographic field guide and was able to narrow his identification down to three birds. After a brief discussion with the students, everyone was in agreement that they were looking at a piratic flycatcher.

Hailing from as far as Argentina, piratic flycatchers are tropical birds belonging to the genus Legatus and are the only species to hold this classification. They are strongly migratory birds, and have been known to fly out of range, but rarely as far as North America. According to the American Birding Association (ABA), less than 10 of these birds have been recorded in the U.S. If Lituma's sighting is accepted by the ABA, it will be the first record for Kansas and the farthest northerly record of the bird, as well.

Scott State park manager, Greg Mills, said the sighting has brought in nearly 75 birders from 13 states, including Virginia.

Although the bird has yet to be seen at the park again since its last sighting at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 10, experts believe the bird could still be in the Sunflower State.

Comment: What marks out this particular odd migration is the extreme distance involved from its normal range. Other extraordinary movements by birds so far this spring are listed below:

Non-migratory citril finch from mountains of mainland Europe found near beach in Holkham,UK

Another completely lost bird: Slate-throated redstart, resident of humid highland forests, turns up on South Padre Island, Texas

Bizarre bird migration: Little Bustard makes rare visit to Finnish Lapland

Globe-trotting bird ends up in Sutton, New Hampshire

Rare bird from the Americas turns up in Somerset, UK

Great blue heron from North America turns up on the Isles of Scilly, UK

Eurasian shorebird (wader) turns up far inland near Winslow, Indiana

Sea duck that is native to Northern Europe turns up off California coast

A similar pattern of extravagantly lost birds was noticeable during the latter part of last year:

Another completely lost avian species: Couch's Kingbird flies from southern Texas to New York

Warbler that should be wintering in western Mexico turns up in Louisiana

Bean goose from Eurasia takes a wrong turn and winds up on the Oregon Coast

Four lost flamingos fly NORTH for the winter and turn up in Siberia

Wrong place, wrong time: European robin turns up thousands of miles away in China

Rare bird from Mongolia turns up in Wakefield, UK

Wrong time, wrong place: Rare bird found in Barrie, Canada