Anginga, Vogel rarely seen in Colorado, discovered in the Boulder County Pond

A tropical water bird, which is rarely seen in Colorado, seems to organize a summer vacation in a private Boulder County pond to delight hundreds of bird watchers on site.

This is just the fourth sight of an Anginga in Colorado and the first in more than 20 years, said Peter Gent from Colorado -Feld -Feld.

The Anginga is a long -term and long -term swimmer that can be seen most frequently in lakes, ponds, rivers, coasts and wetlands in Florida, Texas, in the Middle Atlantic and Southeast of the USA, according to the National Audubon Society.

It is about the size of a Heron and is often compared with a cormorance, but it has a long, narrow, dagger -like calculation, a fan -shaped tail and white markings on the upper wings.

Boulder County Birders received the word about the possible Anginga sighting for the first time on June 2, and Ghent said he had hurried to the 95th Street area in Boulder County to take a look.

“I was just amazed,” he said. “I saw a lot of birds in Boulder County and Colorado, and at the beginning of spring of all birds that are really rare, which I could see in Boulder County, I wrote a list. The Anging was not there.”

The last documented Anginga viewing took place on May 3, 2003 in the Colorado Bird Records Committee of the group in the Barr Lake State Park. Previously, the Anginga was seen in Aurora in 1927 and along the Coal Creek in today's Boomfield County in 1931, said Gent.

There is no final answer why this Anginga made the trip so far out of its normal area, said Gent. One possibility is that rare birds are brought to Colorado from large storms north, while another is that climate change affects bird behavior.

“Of the 20 species that were most recently seen in Colorado, there are a large majority from the south,” said Gent. “In other words, since the climate gets warmer, birds that really like hotter weather can tolerate things in Colorado better than before.”

An estimated 300 bird enthusiasts came by to try to throw the female Anginga since she was discovered for the first time, and Ghent said he was met for long -time friends of Centennial and Fort Collins, who went on the trip to see them.