A rare sighting of an anhinga, also known as a devil bird, in Somerville, photographed on July 23 by Doug Hitchcox, a staff naturalist with Maine Audubon. Photo courtesy Doug Hitchcox/Maine Audubon

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 a small Lincoln County town.

A grainy photo of the anhinga – with its wings spread wide, likely drying its non-waterproof feathers – was first posted by Tabitha Holt to the 175,000-member MAINE Wildlife Facebook group last Tuesday. The waterbird, which is native to Southern states, Mexico, and parts of South America, takes its name from the Tupi Indians in Brazil to mean “devil bird” or “evil spirit of the woods,” according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Doug Hitchcox, staff naturalist for Maine Audubon, saw Holt’s Facebook post and began communicating with neighbors of the site to find a safe way for people to come and see the anhinga. Often, bird sightings are on private property, but this time, the anhinga showed up in a flooded meadow by Hewitt Road, a narrow dirt road in Somerville, about 15 miles east of Augusta.

“When these rare birds show up I’ll be the one to reach out and see if it’ll be accessible to the public,” Hitchcox said. “I had to say, ‘Your quiet little road might get a little busy the next few days.’ ”

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.

Charles Duncan, a Maine birder and co-author of the book “Birds of Maine,” said there have been two other rare bird sightings in Maine in the last month. A tropical kingbird was seen in Dayton, the third time in Maine history. He hasn’t heard if the bird has left the state yet. A ferruginous hawk was also seen at the Lewiston-Auburn airport, but Duncan said it seemed to have stayed for only a day.

Hitchcox, who visited the site in Somerville last week and took his own photos, said the anhinga appeared to be female and born last year according to its plumage. He said local neighbors said the bird has been around for about a month, but the last reported sighting of the bird at the meadow was Friday morning.

“Lots of people have been out looking since then, but it appears to have moved off of that little patch it was using,” he said.

A rare sighting of an anhinga, also known as a devil bird, in Somerville, photographed on July 23 by Doug Hitchcox, a staff naturalist with Maine Audubon. Photo courtesy Doug Hitchcox/Maine Audubon

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, anhingas are similar to cormorants but have longer tails and sharper bills. In addition to the “devil bird,” it also is sometimes called the “snake bird,” for the way its long neck peeps out of the water when swimming. Anhingas swim underwater or on the surface, spearing small wetland fish with a lightning-fast thrust of their long pointed bills, according to the Audobon website.

Hitchcox said anhingas normally populate Southeastern regions of the U.S. down through Mexico and parts of South America. They have been moving north recently – last year, one was spotted in New York – but Maryland is the furthest northern nesting location for the birds.

Hitchcox said the bird in Maine could be what’s called an “overshoot,” a bird that migrated a little too far. It could have been prospecting, coming up here to see what it’s like, he added.

“Climate change is a big driver in northward expansion of bird ranges and this fits within that pattern. It is definitely a factor but it’s hard to know with a sample size of one,” Hitchcox said. “A lot of these waterbirds have weird expansions and retractions.”

Hitchcox said there could be other coincidental factors behind a northward expansion, like an abundance of food. When those resources dwindle, the birds can retract back south.

Duncan lives in Portland but was staying in his summer camp last week in Bremen, which is about 30 minutes from Somerville. He saw the bird on Tuesday, the day of the initial sighting.

“It was very exciting and totally unexpected,” he said. “Anhingas have no business being in Maine.”

Duncan said that he was watching the bird for the afternoon and was in a crowd of about 10 other birders. On eBird, a site managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology where birders log their sightings, approximately 70 users logged the anhinga in Somerville.

“One of the things I love about being a birder in Maine is the sense of community and cooperation,” Duncan said. “It’s a bonus to seeing the bird.”