Yet Another Super Rare Bird Has Been Spotted On the Maine Coast

Maine has seen its fair share of birds that shouldn't be here.

I'm not sure how all these birds get so lost. A few years ago, we had the South American Great Black Hawk that was spotted in Portland. Sadly, that bird was here in the wrong time of the year and eventually succumbed to the elements. It's on display now downstate.

And of course, how could we forget about the Stellar Sea Eagle? Everybody went bananas trying to get photos of that big boy as he was making his way around Maine. Mainers love it when bizarre birds from far away, make their way here. Thankfully, we're all just a bunch of gawkers trying to take photos. So these rare birds are safe-ish, perhaps other than from the elements.

A new, mega-rare bird was also just spotted here in Maine.

More recently, people have been going totally ga-ga over sightings of a Tufted Puffin. So far, Mainers have spotted this little feathered friend off of Petite Manan just out from Steuben, and Machias Seal Island, 10 miles off the coast of Cutler. Even as far out as the Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is way off the coast of Rockland.

The Tufted Puffin is a bird that looks like a weird, Tolkien wizard version of the puffins we have here in Maine. They have extra hair, and their beak is a bit different. But their typical habitat is in Russia/Japan. Their closest breeding habitat is some 2,500+ miles away from here, according to the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

Why is this bird here in Maine?

That's hard to say. Experts say that a bird like this wouldn't have flown over the interior of the U.S. to get here to Maine, so it possibly flew all the way around the Arctic Circle, a journey of nearly 5,000 miles!

But birders are going crazy trying to document the arrival of this rare creature that was last seen in Maine in 2014, and before that, not since the winter of 1831-32. So keep your eyes peeled if you're anywhere near any of these locations. You may just snap the bird photo of a lifetime.

WHILE YOU'RE NEAR THE COAST, CHECK OUT THIS AMAZING ELLSWORTH HOME...