Have you heard about the bird? People flocking to Tifft Nature Preserve to see roseate spoonbill

Could it be it just wanted to get away from the torrid heat and wound up in the temperate clime by the Great Lakes?

Whatever the reason, the visiting roseate spoonbill – with light pink plumage and long, broad, spoon-shaped bill – has become a sought-after attraction for all sorts of nature lovers in Buffalo the last few weeks.

It’s a rare sight here, and people have traveled from Seneca Bluffs Park to Tifft Nature Preserve to Cazenovia Park to see the bird roosting or hanging out with egrets.

But it’s not a rare bird.

“Like most birds, they’re only rare when they’re in the wrong location,” said David Sugg, president of the Buffalo Ornithological Society.

He said the plumage with light pink feathers reveals that the bird was hatched this year. The birds grow to be about 30 inches tall.

“This is a juvenile bird that left the nest sometime this calendar year and flew off maybe in a different direction, and wound up in Western New York,” Sugg said.

Paul and Becky Foster of Newfane have been to Texas, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and other states to see birds. They’ve seen roseate spoonbills in Florida, and went to Seneca Bluffs Thursday after hearing one was in the area.

“To see one up here, like this here, in Buffalo is pretty unique,” Paul Foster said. “He was sitting there with an egret and great blue heron, and we’re thrilled. It makes it worth getting up in the morning when you see something like this.”

Its flight north could have been influenced by the weather or perhaps it was a successful breeding season with many young birds competing for food and habitat, he said.

It’s the first spotting of a roseate spoonbill in the Western New York and Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula study area in the 94-year history of the…