Tropical seabird mysteriously appears in the Missouri Ozarks. How did it get there?

A tropical bird somehow strayed hundreds of miles from its typical habitat and ended up in the Ozarks, Missouri officials say.

The Brown Booby was first spotted by Debbie Prance-Orosz perching along the Current River in Ripley County, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation. It’s the first time a sighting of the bird has been recorded in the state.

The large seabird with long wings is usually found anywhere between southern Florida in the Caribbean to the Pacific coastlines of Central America and South America, officials say.

“It’s just an anomaly,” Sarah Kendrick, a state ornithologist, said in a news release. “To spot this tropical seabird in the Ozarks is as awesome as it is bizarre.”

Just how the Brown Booby traveled to the Ozarks remains a mystery.

Recent storms along the Gulf Coast could have blown it off course or caused it to get lost, Kendrick said.

“It can be difficult for birds to escape severe weather, and some can be blown hundreds of miles off course, but this is extreme,” she said.

Prance-Orosz posted a photo of the bird on social media without realizing just what she’d stumbled upon, according to a Facebook post. She soon learned it was a “big deal.”

Steve Paes, a Missouri Department of Conservation forester and avid birder, set out to find the Brown Booby along the river and found it perching on a dead tree Monday.

The bird appears healthy, active and able to catch fish in the river, officials say. It doesn’t appear to mind people, Paes said.

“There’s no telling how long it’ll be here,” Paes said. “It could be a few weeks, or it could be gone tomorrow. But for serious birders, it’s such a treat. They’re crossing a tropical bird off their list that they got to see in Missouri. It’s absolutely a kick.”