PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 30, 2024
A Southern waterbird known as the anhinga, or “devil bird,” made its first documented appearance in Maine last week, perched on a log in a flooded meadow in the small Lincoln County town of Somerville. The anhinga is the latest in a long line of rare birds sighted in Maine in recent years, the most prominent being the late 2021 arrival of the extremely rare Steller’s sea eagle in Georgetown, a bird native to northeastern Asia. In 2018, a great black hawk, only seen once before in America, hunkered down in Biddeford and generated buzz throughout the national birding community. Two other rare bird sightings in Maine in the last month. A tropical kingbird was seen in Dayton, the third time in Maine history. A ferruginous hawk was seen at the Lewiston-Auburn airport.