Rare bird spotted on High Island

David and Jan Hanson, members of the Galveston Ornithological Society, on May 3 photographed what they thought to be a common hawk on High Island.

They did not know, however, that they actually had snapped birding history on the wing.

Intrigued, they forwarded the photo to Jim Stevenson, director of the society.

Stevenson, who has led birding tours to Central America and South America for 50 years, said his instincts told him the bird wasn’t a hawk.

It was too slender, and the bars on the belly were too wide for it to be to be a broad-winged hawk, Stevenson said.

Figuring out what it was proved harder than figuring out what it wasn’t, so Stevenson consulted experts across the country.

As it turns out, the bird was a double-toothed kite, the first one seen in this hemisphere, Stevenson said.

It gets its name for its double “tooth” on its upper bill. Looking more like a hawk, indeed, the double-toothed appears fiercer to predators, its defense mechanism.

The verdict is in and a new North American species is the result, Stevenson said, explaining the tipoff: Most immature raptors such as the double-toothed kite have a brown back and brown streaks underneath, while adults have a gray back and reddish bars underneath, he said.

The bird photographed did not have either type of plumage completely, making it difficult to identify, Stevenson said.

The lush, hothouse habitat of the Southern Hemisphere supports the double-toothed kite nicely, but more of this rainforest-loving species might seek another paradise before too long.

In fact, the double-toothed kite photographed 2,000 miles from home in Galveston County might have made the long flight to Texas in search of cooler climes because of global warming, Stevenson said.

It’s natural for birds to expand their range farther north as the earth becomes warmer, Stevenson said.

Now that this species has turned up in North America, bird lovers and ornithologists alike are certain to be tweet-tweeting the praises of this lucky find for years to come.

To document the sighting, Eric Carpenter, of the Texas Bird Records Committee, in Austin, will compare a photo of the site without the bird to the one with it pictured.

If accepted, the Hanson photo will in likely appear in North American field guides from now on.

Discovery of a North American species of the double-toothed kite could nudge Texas a little higher in the pecking order among regional enthusiasts.

Texas, Florida and California vigorously compete to see which state is has the highest number of birds on respective state lists. Texas is slightly ahead and this will be one more tick on the list, Stevenson said.

Most of all, inclusion of the newfound North American double-toothed kite in birding reference works will surely help other birders and scientists identify this true rare bird, in case they, too, are incredibly fortunate enough to encounter it.

The Hansons did the right thing, Stevenson said, giving these avid birders due credit in making this most exciting milestone in North American ornithology a reality.