Michael Sanchez had traveled from Vancouver, Washington to northwest Oregon last week to take photographs of waterfalls – not birds.
An amateur photographer, Sanchez, 41, figured the scenic sites of Hug Point along the coast of the North Pacific Ocean would be an idyllic setting for him to hone his craft. While Sanchez was waiting one morning for the sunrise to completely crest some nearby cliffs, he just happened to notice a small bird nearby.
The critter, which Sanchez took as nothing more than a common blackbird, seemed to be as good a subject as any for him to practice his photography skills before the lighting was good enough to start snapping some waterfall photos.
But when he got back home to Washington and began processing his photos, Sanchez realized it was no mere blackbird that he had photographed. Its blue and chestnut coloreds mystified Sanchez, who was prompted to post his photos on Facebook to see if any avian experts could help him identify the species.
That’s how Sanchez learned that he had inadvertently captured photo evidence of a bird so uncommon to the U.S., that some experts are baffled as to how it even got here. The bird, which is widely believed to be a blue rock thrush, is a native of Europe and Asia that has rarely – if ever – been spotted in North America.
“I didn’t know it was rare but I had never seen anything like that,” Sanchez told USA TODAY on Monday. “It became quickly apparent that this was a very unusual experience.”
Read more here from USA Today.
