PALM CITY — There may be a new rare bird in town.

After an exceptionally rare yellow northern cardinal with a genetic color mutation was photographed in Port St. Lucie in October, two separate sightings were made Thursday within 5 minutes of each other, some 17 miles apart.

Elizabeth Abeyta-Price was on the phone with her daughter at 1:43 p.m. when she first spotted a rare male yellow northern cardinal in her backyard off of Southwest Westover Court in Palm City, she said. The bird was in the area until around 2:06 p.m.

Just one town to the north in Port St. Lucie, Tracy Workman also saw a rare yellow northern cardinal in her backyard and took an image on her digital camera, she said. Workman examined the photo's metadata and said it was taken right around 2:03 p.m.

The two women live about 17.5 miles apart, according to Google Maps data.

"He's been around my yard every day since at least Tuesday," Abeyta-Price said.

Geoffrey Hill, a professor and curator of birds at Auburn University and an expert on bird coloration, said Friday it is "almost for sure" there are at least two genetically mutated cardinals along the Treasure Coast.

More:Extremely rare 'one in a million' yellow cardinal spotted in Port St. Lucie — twice

"I'm extremely confident that it's a different bird," Hill said. "Cardinals are not flying random 17-mile trips around the city."

Hill added that migration season has concluded, even though northern cardinals are stationary birds and typically do not leave their area.

"If that was an alibi for a murder, then I wouldn't be accepting it," Hill joked. "They just don't move that much."

Hill said the mutation found in the northern cardinal species acts as a "knockout of the redness pathway" in the bird's DNA, blocking the normal red pigment and replacing it with a vibrant yellow color.

Only three yellow cardinal sightings are reported a year, making the bird's appearance a "one in a million" finding, Hill said in October.

Now he believes there are two within a 17-mile radius.

"I thought they were incredibly rare," Abeyta-Price joked on Friday.

There are two theories to explain why the yellow birds keep appearing, Hill said.

The 'Patagonia Rest Stop' Effect

The first explanation is what the birding community calls the "Patagonia Rest Stop Effect," Hill said.

The effect, which was named after a similar birding event that was recorded in Patagonia, Arizona, is a phenomenon when birdwatchers learn of the discovery of a rare bird at a location and it leads to more discoveries in the given area, Hill said.

"There are a lot of retired people interested in looking at birds (along the Treasure Coast)," Hill said. "Because there was one sighting, everyone starts looking."

With recent national attention on the yellow cardinal sightings, Hill said more people are aware of what they might be seeing in front of them. There could be even more sightings in the future, he added.

"Rare birds are under reported," Hill said. "Until it turns out there were more than we thought."

More condensed mutations?

Another plausible thoery, Hill said, is that the coloration mutation could be more frequent along the Treasure Coast than in other areas. This might be because of the dense populations of northern cardinals in the area, he added.

"There's a lot of cardinals in that region," Hill said. "It's possible that the allele in that area of Florida is more likely to appear."

An allele is a form of a gene that emerges by mutation and can be found in the genetic material of an organism, like a northern cardinal.

The mutation is analogous to albinism found in humans, Hill said. Like humans, all birds have DNA that is subject to mutations.

While only speculating, those are just two of Hill's ideas, he said.

Local birds and climate change

Abeyta-Price said she shared all of her cardinal photos with the Audubon of Martin County Thursday as soon as she took the images. The group later posted the news of the sighting to their Facebook page.

John Nelson, President of Audubon of Martin County, said that the sighting in Palm City was exciting.

"It was an oddball chance to say the least," Nelson said Friday.

A 2019 report released by the National Audubon Society shows that 389 bird species are at risk of extinction because of climate change. If greenhouse gas emissions are not decreased by 45% by 2030, these species could be highly vulnerable to extinction, the report said.

Along the Treasure Coast, six bird species in St. Lucie County and eight in Martin and Indian River counties are listed as "highly vulnerable" to climate change by the Audubon Society.

Florida has 87 stable bird species, 13 that are highly vulnerable, 16 that are moderately vulnerable and 28 that have low vulnerability, according to Audubon.The protection of their in-state habitat is imperative, the organization warns.

"Rare birds have always been there," Hill said. "Just nobody was looking for them."

Max Chesnes is a TCPalm breaking news reporter. You can keep up with Max on Twitter @MaxChesnes and give him a call at 772-978-2224. Would you like more quality local journalism? Consider subscribing today.