This bird hadn’t been seen in central California in years. It was just spotted in a Fresno park

Rachel Clark almost slept in.

She debated staying in bed Sunday morning, but got up and headed down to Woodward Park for a bit of bird watching before the heat set in.

It was a good thing.

Around 7 a.m., as she was walking at the edge of the southernmost pond in the park she saw a bright yellow, nearly orange bird fly out from a small grove of willows to a nearby oak tree.

“Prothonotary Warbler was not on my radar, so my mind tried to make it into something else,” says Clark, a Fresno area birder who is the president of the Fresno Audubon Society.

“When I got a closer look at the stunning yellow body and blue-gray wings, there was no mistaking that this was the Prothonotary.”

Clark immediately called in a photographer to get a picture of the bird, and Fresno Audubon sent out a news release on the sighting, calling it a “mega-rarity for the Valley.”

Prothonotary Warblers are sometimes referred to as the “golden sprite of swampy woodlands,” Clark says. The small, yet somewhat husky songbird typically breeds in swampy woodlands of the southeastern United States.

The birds are seen out West, though rarely, and have definitely been seen in California before, but this is the first record of the species in Fresno County, Clark says, and only the second time its been spotted in the central San Joaquin Valley.

A Prothonotary Warbler was seen in 2005 in the Cosumnes River Preserve south of Sacramento.

“To see this stunning bird that breeds in swampy forests of the southeast show up in Fresno is honestly kind of jaw-dropping,” Clark says.

And other birders have started showing up at Woodward Park for the chance to see the bird. By Monday morning there were birders coming in from as far away as Oakland and Woodland.

“For some of these people, this bird is what we call a ‘lifer,’ which is bird they are observing in the wild for the first time, and that is a very exciting thing,” Clark says.

“And some just like to chase rare bird sightings.”

The warbler has continued to be spotted every day this this week, according to the Audubon Society. Clark is leading an impromptu field trip through the park at 7 a.m. Friday. Registration is available online at fresnoaudubon.org.

Prothonotary Warblers are cavity nesters, meaning they nest in holes in trees (either naturally occurring or created by woodpeckers), which is a rare trait among warblers, Clark says.

The Woodward Park warbler is an adult male, marked with a bright yellow body, blue-gray wings and tail, and white under the tail, which stands out in contrast to the yellow body. Females look similar, but are paler, overall, Clark says. The bird seems to be hanging around a group of three or four yellow warblers, and favors the middle to upper sections of trees.

It doesn’t show itself often.

It’s not clear how the bird ended up in the park, though it is not uncommon for birds to go off-course during migration.

“Sometimes they get thrown off by things such as light pollution,”Clark says.

“I don’t think we will ever know exactly how this individual came to show up at Woodward Park of all places.”