Members of the state’s birding community were astonished in November when they spotted a in South Dakota, the first confirmed sighting in the state.

The bird is plentiful in Mexico and the tropics and typically found in the United States in only extreme southern Texas.

The sighting in South Dakota was near Volga during the South Dakota Ornithologists’ Union fall meeting in Brookings, so there was no doubt about its veracity. Members of the community speculated about how it ended up here, and in the story above, South Dakota State University ornithologist K.C. Jensen predicted the tropical birds wouldn’t have a good chance to survive South Dakota’s brutal winter.

    

He was right.

Despite efforts by the homeowners to give the bird food, shelter and a heated bird bath, it died. They were “heartbroken” about the loss, according to Jensen, who posted the news to a birding list serve.

“I assured them that they had done everything possible to provide for the Kiskadee,” Jensen said. “After all, this was a tropical bird trying to survive in a South Dakota winter.”

He ended the post: “The bird and the excitement certainly made this winter seem shorter – for me at least!”