A rare-bird sighting in Riverhead sparks an ornithological frenzy

When a bird rarely seen on this continent showed up in Riverhead last month, the reaction was, as might be expected, a little cuckoo.

The common cuckoo — the iconic inspiration of cuckoo clock fame — appeared at a golf course and in a nearby field and stayed around for four days.

Native to Eurasia, the bird is anything but common here: It typically spends winters in Africa and Asia and had only ever been spotted in the continental United States three times prior in more than 40 years, and never in New York. It was initially seen in Riverhead late on the afternoon of Oct. 23 and last spotted on the morning of Oct. 26 — just long enough to incite a frenzy of hundreds of bird lovers to flock to the site, some flying in from other states just to get a glimpse. A different common cuckoo has