Why are these Florida birds in New Jersey?

A Floridian, flamingo-colored bird has drawn the attention of bird watchers throughout the Jersey Shore.

A roseate spoonbill, named for its color and the unique shape of its beak, has left its habitat in Florida and Texas and made the Garden State its summer home. See more in the video above.

“It’s only one. It’s so out of place,” said Joe Gliozzo, a 56-year-old wildlife photographer from Jackson.

To see this southern bird, he drove all the way to Heislerville Wildlife Management Area in Maurice River Township, Cumberland County, for the chance to photograph the animal.

Last Saturday, he watched the spoonbill lounge in a tree with egrets. Then, he photographed the bird trying to get comfortable in a bald eagle nest before the eagle urged it away.

Local bird enthusiasts have reported seeing the spoonbill in Sedge Island off Island Beach State Park and in Tuckerton as well.

It is not the only Floridian bird getting attention in New Jersey. Wood storks, another resident of marshy areas of Florida and Georgia, have been spotted by birders.

“Right now with all the storms and everything else, a lot of the inland states are seeing rarities,” said Alyssa Della Fave, an avid birder and environmental scientist who lives in Island Heights.

Hurricanes Irma, Harvey and other tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean have helped push bird varieties that live at sea into areas where they are not normally found, particularly through the Carolinas and Tennessee, she said.

But these powerful storms are likely not responsible for driving the spoonbill and wood storks here, Della Fave said.

“A lot of the (rare) birds that we’re seeing in New Jersey, unfortunately, aren’t the storm birds that everywhere else is getting," she said.

Della Fave said the spoonbill was spotted in New Jersey back in July, before hurricane season was underway.

“It’s just one of those years where these southern species have made their way up," she said.

Andrew Farnsworth, a migratory bird expert at Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology, agrees.

"It doesn’t, in this case, seem to be related to the tropical systems," he said.

Meredith Martin, a staff member with the conservation organization New Jersey Audubon, spotted the spoonbill in July. The roseate spoonbill is so rare in New Jersey that only sporadic sightings have been recorded by birders, the previous sighting here being reported in 2009, according to New Jersey Audubon.

This species of spoonbill is found predominantly in South America, and are rarely seen north of Georgia, according to Chris Neff, a spokesman for New Jersey Audubon.

According to the website eBird.org, where bird enthusiasts track and share sightings of rare species, a roseate spoonbill was first recorded at Island Beach State Park on July 22.

The tropical storm that became Hurricane Harvey did not form in the Atlantic until weeks later, in mid-August. Therefore, Farnsworth and other bird experts say, it is unlikely the hurricanes played a role in the birds' whereabouts.

Finding spoonbills and wood storks this far outside their usual range isn't actually all that unusual, Farnsworth said.

“When these birds leave the nest and start foraging on their own, they often do these kinds of bizarre long-distance dispersals," he said.

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During the summer, New Jersey's coastal ecosystems are not all that different from the warmer climates the birds are used to, he said. The animals are able to find the invertebrates, fish and sometimes small rodents that make up their diets, he added.

As the weather changes, “there’s a reasonable chance they’ll take off and move, and probably head back to the South," Farnsworth said.

In the meantime, bird watchers are continuing to track their movements on eBird.org. One birder photographed a wood stork on Monday in a marsh at Sandy Hook. Other bird watchers reported the spoonbill remained at Heislerville Wildlife Management Area on Tuesday.

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Before these birds migrate south, they are triggering a human migration by their presence.

Debbie Puskas, 55, of Somerset said she drove two hours to Edwin B. Forsyth Wildlife Refuge in Galloway to see a yellow-headed blackbird, another bird species usually only seen west of the Mississippi River.

“I was so excited," she said.

Like Puskas, birders are traveling from all over the region for a chance to see these animals in person.

Della Fave, who administrates two New Jersey-based Facebook communities for birders, said a strong storm that rides up the Atlantic Coast has the potential to bring with it more southern avian species.

"It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of this hurricane seasons pans out," she said.

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Amanda Oglesby: 732-557-5701; aoglesby@GannettNJ.com