Rare bluebird spotted at North Carolina beach is ‘like seeing a penguin’ on the East Coast

The rare cerulean coloured creature normally resides on the western side of the continent

Birdwatchers in North Carolina have been greeted by an unfamiliar, but welcome presence recently on their ambling walks about Wrightsville Beach: the mountain bluebird.

The rare cerulean coloured creature normally resides on the western side of the continent, and even then, only in higher elevations (hence the name, mountain bluebird).

But as recently as last February, birders in the region began noticing the feathered friend, who they’ve since come to call Rocky, that didn’t match with the species found in local guidebooks.

“It would be kind of like seeing a penguin show up at Wrightsville Beach, it’s that out of the ordinary,” Dorothy Sutherland, a nature photographer and local birdwatcher, told The Charlotte Observer.

AllAboutBirds, a website guide that provides detailed guides about our nested neighbours and is run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, describes the mountain bluebird as being easy to find, should you stumble upon their habitat.

“In the right places it can be a snap to find Mountain Bluebirds, as they are not shy of humans and live in fairly open country,” the site explains.

Though they’re not native to the eastern seaboard, that definition would align closely with the experiences of the birders in the region who have been excitedly sharing pictures of Rocky in local Facebook groups and birdwatching sites.

“This is Rocky, the Mountain Bluebird that vacationed at Wrightsville Beach for a few months or so,” Ms Sutherland wrote in the Facebook group Bird Watching N.C. recently, sharing close up snaps of the prairie blue bird perched near some open grass.

“I took these last shots of him around two and a half, three weeks back. I went back a few days ago and he was no longer there. At least I didn’t see him. Maybe he was homesick,” she added.

Birds like these haven’t been reported in the state since 1985, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Curtis Smalling, director of conservation for Audubon North Carolina, told McClatchy News in an interview that this is the first confirmed state record sighting of the bird, and the excitement in the community has hit peak levels.

“Once the word got out that there was a mountain bluebird at Wrightsville, everybody started going there with their cameras,” Mr Smaling told the news outlet.

For those who may take the sighting of a far off species visiting a place so far from home as a signal of something more troubling afoot – habitat collapse, overhunting and climate change induced migration are just some of the causes that might immediately spring to mind – Mr Smaling says not to waste your worries.

Birds, he notes, can travel far away from their normal habitat without any particular rhyme or reason, and it’s likely that this particular bird has done just that.

“There’s no telling what triggers it, but they do wander,” he told McClatchy. “And they can go a long way when they set their mind to it.”

The National Audubon Society reported that mountain bluebirds are part of the 314 bird species, nearly half the total number found across the continental US and Canada, who are threatened by climate change. The study identified 126 species that are predicted to lose more than 50 per cent of their current ranges – in some cases up to 100 per cent – by 2050.