A variety of bird rarely seen over the last several decades in Clark County was recently spotted here. Now, backyard habitat experts are asking the public to keep their eyes out for the little birdies, and possibly offer them a bit of help.

“We want to encourage people to keep an eye out for (Western) bluebirds and to let us know if they see them,” Erika Johnson, coordinator for Clark County Master Gardeners said in a news release. “We may be able to offer nest boxes and help with monitoring.”

Johnson said she first spotted a handful of the birds about seven years ago at Heritage Farm on Northeast 78th Street. Then, after the big freeze last winter, she found four of them dead, huddled together in a bird house. That spring she saw a female fly north across 78th Street.

The sightings were exciting, but also strange. Neither local birders nor officials from nearby wildlife refuges had records of ever seeing them in Clark County before Johnson spotted them.

“It’s a great mystery,” she said in an interview with The Columbian.

About the size of a sparrow, the male Western bluebird is a compact little fellow. He has onyx eyes and a matching beak, and looks to be wearing a rust-orange vest over a cobalt blue long-sleeved shirt with a matching blue hood. The female’s appearance is more subdued. She wears a light rust-orange vest washed over a slate-gray body. Her gray wings are accented at the tips with baby-blue feathers.