Local birdwatcher Eric Amos is excited after spotting an extremely rare bird at the Bermuda Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count at the weekend.

He spotted a Kirtland's Warbler while watching a foraging flock of migrant and local land birds at the western end of Hog Bay Park.

There are only an estimated 1,800 living today and it has never been seen in Bermuda.

He spotted the sparrow sized, robust tail-waging warbler and noticed its loud, distinctive call note.

"It was bright yellow below with breast and flanks spotted and streaked with black.

"I had never seen this species before but I knew immediately that it was a Kirtland's Warbler, one of the rarest and most endangered of North American songbirds.

"It was totally unconcerned by my presence and approached within 6 feet. It is a young bird of the year.

"There are few other species, if any, that could match the excitement this bird caused among local birders."

Kirtland's Warblers nest in Michigan and spend the winters in the Bahamas, making a 3,000 mile round trip each year. But away from their nesting area, they are very rarely recorded. "Even in the Bahamas they are seldom seen," said Mr. Amos.

"They have a very limited nesting range ? in dense jack pine forests in Michigan's Lower Peninsula in an area 100 miles long and 60 miles.

"It is known as the 'bird of fire' because intense heat is needed to open the jack pine cone and release the seeds. Without opening and disbursing the seeds, new trees do not grow."

But he said the Kirtland's Warbler has lost breeding habitat due to improvements in wildfire prevention and the parasitic Brown-headed Cowbird, which lays its eggs in the warbler's nest.

The Kirtland's Warbler is a fully protected and managed species today and the "removal" of the cowbirds and controlled burnings at the nesting grounds is slowly improving its chances. Most of the local birders located the bird the next day. Details will be sent to the Kirtland's Warbler Management Team in Michigan and the Kirtland's Warbler Research and Training Project in the Bahamas.