A white-winged tern is seen flying over Manitowoc. The shorebird native to Eurasia, last recorded in Wisconsin in 1873, was spotted Saturday afternoon at an impoundment along Lake Michigan. Credit: Courtesy of Chris West

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A shorebird native to Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa that was last recorded in Wisconsin in 1873 has been spotted along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Manitowoc.

A white-winged tern was identified on Saturday afternoon for the first time at an impoundment along Lake Michigan — a discovery that has since attracted throngs of birders and passers-by looking for a chance to see the rare bird.

A specimen of a white-winged tern was last recorded in Wisconsin in Jefferson County by A. Ludwig Kumlien, an ornithologist and naturalist, in 1873.

"I think it's safe to say that no one living has seen this bird in Wisconsin," said Carl Schwartz, editor of The Badger Birder, the monthly newsletter of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology.

"It's the rarest bird that's turned up in the state in a very long time."

Schwartz, of Fox Point, is an example of bird enthusiasts who, having heard a rare bird had been sighted, traveled to Manitowoc over the weekend in the hope they would see it.

He drove from the Baraboo Hills to Manitowoc and spotted a solitary white-winged tern flying among 1,000 or so other birds along the shoreline about 3 p.m. Sunday.

The tern was first observed by Chuck Sontag of Manitowoc, a professor emeritus of biological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc. Sontag lives just a few blocks from the impoundment and visits the area daily to watch birds migrating up and down the shoreline.

On Saturday afternoon, Sontag mentioned to fellow birder Mark Hodgson of Madison whether he had seen a black tern, which has a similar appearance. But after Hodgson spotted the bird, he said, "I don't think that's a black tern. I think that it's a white-winged tern," Hodgson said in an interview Monday.

The two looked closer and both confirmed Monday that what they were seeing was a white-winged tern — a bird normally living a half a world away.

Hodgson: "I'm still tingling. It's such a rare find."

Sontag: "It's really exciting to see a bird like this."

According to the Audubon Guide to North American Birds, the white-winged tern is about 9 inches. Its native breeding range is Eastern Europe and Asia, and nonbreeding range includes much of Africa, according to BirdLife International.

Birds found so far from their native range are considered "vagrants," according to David Drake, a wildlife biologist at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.

So how did it get to Wisconsin?

Weather — often violent storms — are often the reason. "They usually get blown way off their course," Drake said.

Another explanation is that they inexplicably follow the migrations of other birds.

Sontag said white-winged terns have occasionally been found on the eastern seaboard of the United States, but Midwestern sightings are extremely rare. "Why it showed up here, I haven't a clue," he said.

By Monday, the tern had apparently left, at least for now, according to Sontag.

"There were a lot of disappointed people," he said.