NEW CASTLE, N.H. — A long-legged bird that calls coastal Africa home has bird enthusiasts converging on New Hampshire’s Seacoast, craning their necks for a glimpse of the exotic species.

The western reef heron, seen only once before in the United States, was first sighted Friday at Kittery Point, Maine, and was later spotted in New Hampshire. Alerts at bird Web sites, text messages and cell phone calls brought in droves of birders lugging high-powered scopes, binoculars and cameras to the area.

Tuesday afternoon, Edge Wade of Columbia, Mo., scanned the New Castle, N.H., shoreline for the heron. She had read about the sighting on the Internet, drove 125 miles to St. Louis, Mo., hopped a plane for Logan International Airport and rented a car.

Asked what motivated her, she said, “It’s the same reason that people climb mountains. It’s here.” This is her second visit to New England for a rare bird sighting. She went to Martha’s Vineyard in 2004 to see a red-footed falcon.

On Sunday, 60 bird-watchers hugged the roadside of narrow Route 1B in New Castle, near the historic Wentworth Hotel, training their lenses on mud flats 400 feet away. The view was partially obscured by

a sand bar. The dark heron’s head popped in and out of view as it fished with a snowy egret in ankle-deep

water.

“It was almost like a puppet show,” said Richard Bickford of the Seacoast chapter of the Audubon Society.

The sighting drew Don and Lillian Stokes, authors of bird field guides and hosts of a Public Broadcasting Station show on bird watching.

Bird book author Davis Finch of East Kingston was there. He was among a small group of people who saw the reef heron in its first known appearance in the United States. That was 1983 on Nantucket.

The bird is native to the Red Sea and other African waters, where it stalks fish and feeds on mollusks and crustaceans.

The long-billed bird is slate gray, almost black, except for a small patch of white at its chin and throat. Orange-yellow feet make a striking contrast to the bird’s black legs as it walks along, Finch said.

Finch and New Hampshire bird expert Steve Mirick suspect that the bird flew from Africa across the South Atlantic before winging north.

It’s possible the bird was blown off course or became confused, Mirick said. Most birds have a genetic road map that tells them where to go, he said.

“Some birds have their maps backwards and go the wrong way,” Mirick said.

When a rare sighting occurs, it’s typically of a lone bird, said Ann Ablowich of the Audubon Society. She said she didn’t know why the lone bird winds up so far away from the flock.

Mirick said rare bird sightings can lead to rare people sightings. He ran into several people, from New York and elsewhere, whom he hadn’t seen since they last met at a rare sighting.

The Internet and wide use of cell phones has revolutionized bird watching, Mirick said. Birders who subscribe to bird-sighting lists learn instantly of interesting or rare sights.

Among the birders with the reef heron in their sights on Sunday was Richard Bickford, 53, a Rochester contractor. He said word of the bird generated great excitement among birders. “It was a huge hubbub. It’s an extremely rare bird,” he said.

“It’s wonderful to see something that has only been seen in the United States only on a couple of occasions,” he said.

Mirick says the bird will be fine. Before winter it will likely migrate south with snowy egret, he said.



Terry Date writes for The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Mass.