JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
An exotic visitor flew quietly into Kansas City recently, and no, it was not a World Cup tourist. As Frank Morris of member station KCUR reports, a Caribbean seabird landed in his very landlocked city, attracting flocks of birders and other curious observers, looking for a glimpse of the brown booby.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CHIRPING)
FRANK MORRIS, BYLINE: This pond, smack in the middle of Kansas City, is generally pretty quiet, but that changed when Sav Campbell took their evening stroll last Friday.
SAV CAMPBELL: I just - I looked at it, and I was sure that I hadn't seen that shorebird before. And I sat down on the rocks next to the waterfall, pulled up the Merlin app and eBird, and everything was coming back that it was a brown booby.
MORRIS: The brown booby sighting set off urgent posts and rare bird alert emails. Birders came flocking to see what, from a distance, could be a big, brown duck. When it takes off, you can see the white under the wings and across the belly, and there's a little blue around the eyes.
HANNA SOSA: I just came to visit the brown booby here - heard it was here, got really excited. And so I was like, I have to. Like, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see this bird, so I came on over.
MORRIS: Hanna Sosa, orange binoculars around her neck, is among the steady trickle of brown booby seekers.
SOSA: More and more people keep coming. Like, it's been so many people coming by. I feel like there's a lot of chaos in the world, and to go out into the nature and see birds in their natural habitat is just really relaxing.
MORRIS: Of course, Kansas City is not this bird's natural habitat, or even close. That would be more like the Virgin Islands or Venezuela.
CAROL KRUSE: It was blown off course. It's like a couple years ago, there was a flamingo in Kansas.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
MORRIS: Carol Kruse, looking through a long camera lens, is one of maybe a dozen photographers getting shots of the swooping, diving and mainly just sitting bird. There's a smattering of little kids and folks whipping out cellphones. It's a friendly bunch, and some have traveled farther than the booby.
LAWRENCE KO: My name's Lawrence Ko, K-O. I'm from Hong Kong, basically, and I flew over here just for the World Cup.
MORRIS: Ko broke off from the World Cup soccer games and festivities here to worry a moment about this lonely bird.
KO: I was surprised there's only one here. Yeah. It is OK to stay here alone, or the climate is OK for it?
MORRIS: Answer, no. Most people around the pond think the renegade brown booby will rest up, then fly off to surprise and delight birders elsewhere, hopefully on its way to the tropics. For NPR News, I'm Frank Morris in Kansas City.
(SOUNDBITE OF SEAL SONG, "FLY LIKE AN EAGLE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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