A tropical bird never before seen in Colorado drew dozens of Front Range birders to a lake on the Eastern Plains this weekend – and helped one birder become the first person known to spot 500 different species in the state.
Catching a glimpse of the piratic flycatcher, a migratory bird from Central and South America, this far north is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for many Colorado birdwatchers. But for noted state birder and Littleton resident Joey Kellner, it also marked the major 500-species milestone.
Front Range birders may know Kellner, 62, as a leader on Denver Field Ornithologists birding field trips across Colorado and in other states or from his 30 years leading monthly bird walks at Chatfield State Park.
Kellner’s love of birdwatching blossomed alongside his love for his wife, Brenda – the couple started birding together when they were first dating in 1984. He stuck with it in part for the challenge of identifying unusual birds or bird behavior, but also because it’s fun.
“It’s a search for feathered treasure,” he said. “You never know when you get up in the morning what you’re going to see, and that usually comes true.”
That curiosity was contagious and spread to Coloradans of all ages – and led him to mentor a then-teenaged Chris Wood, who is now the director of the popular eBird project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Kellner was on one of those treasure hunts with Wood and a group of friends on Saturday when they heard about the flycatcher sighting.
“When the phone call came in, we all just looked at each other, ran back to the car and bolted,” he said.
Arvada resident Brian Genge was also among the Front Range birders who made the drive to Stalker Lake State Wildlife Area on Saturday, and ducked out of plans to go birdwatching with another group that afternoon.
“That’s the kind of group that definitely gets it,” he said, laughing.
Checking off 500 birds in Colorado is remarkable because the list of every bird ever seen in the state currently sits at 522 species, said Peter Gent, president of Colorado Field Ornithologists. Once the piratic flycatcher is accepted onto the list, it will be 523.
“It’s a significant achievement,” Gent said. “Joey is definitely one of the state’s premier birders, so it’s not surprising he’s got up there and seen 500.”
This is only the 15th time the piratic flycatcher has been spotted in the United States and is the farthest north sighting, Gent added. Others were reported in the Southwest, Florida and Kansas.
Gent knows of one other person in Colorado who may have hit the 500 species mark, but that birder is quite private, he said. As far as publicly available records go, Kellner is the only member of the 500-birds-in-Colorado club.
Kellner’s first reaction to his achievement? “Wow. That anyone has seen that many birds in Colorado is crazy,” he said, laughing. “When we first started in the mid-’80s, I think the state list was 440 or something like that.”
While it’s not clear why birds like the piratic flycatcher wander so far from their normal range, birders can hazard some guesses, Gent said. This bird was young, which means it’s more likely to wander, and while birders can’t tell the sex in this species of bird, males are also more likely to wander than females.
“My guess is it’s a teenage male behaving badly,” he said.
Young birds can also mix up directions and fly north when they mean to go south, Gent said.
The piratic flycatcher was still hanging around Stalker Lake as of Tuesday afternoon, but there’s no telling how long it will stick around before heading back home.
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