A Mexican bird that has never before been recorded in Colorado has been spotted in a Loveland bird enthusiast’s backyard.
About 150 bird watchers have shown up at Connie Kogler’s house to view a Streak-backed Oriole that has made regular morning appearances in her bird sanctuary since Saturday, Kog ler said.
Colorado Field Ornithologists, which maintains records of all bird sightings in Colorado, has confirmed the bird’s species and its status in the record book, according to the “rare bird alert” on the CFO website.
The bird is fairly common in its native South Pacific coast habitat in Mexico, but it is rarely spotted farther north than an occasional sighting in Arizona during the winter months.
“This type of bird is known for its vagrancy,” Kogler said of the species’ counterintuitive winter migration to colder climates. “Some birds’ migratory sense can get turned around, and they just keep going.”
Kogler is a 30-year birder and sits on the board of the CFO, so she knew to buy food the Oriole is known to like and submit the sighting to the records committee as soon as she saw the bird, she said.
The docile bird about the size of the common blackbird has been showing up like clockwork at 7:15 a.m. and munches on a mix on beef fat, ground up insects, fruits and jellies.
Kogler said she nicknamed the bird “Pedro,” but she can’t tell whether the bird is an adult female or a juvenile male.
“I tried to interview the bird,” she joked. “But I don’t speak Spanish.”
About 15 bird watchers were waiting for the bird to make an appearance Thursday morning.
“You never know with birds how long they will stick around,” Kogler said. “But this little guy is a ‘life bird,’ meaning never seen before ever (in Colorado), so people are obsessing a little.”
