When Tampa Bay commuters drive over the Howard Frankland Bridge on their way to work, they likely have no idea how close they are to a rare pelagic bird species not typically found in the region: the Brown Booby.

Just north of the bridge is Cypress Point Park, a well-known birding hotspot for viewing seabirds and shorebirds foraging at low tide. The park is also one of Kara Cook’s non-breeding survey locations. Cook, a rooftop biologist for Audubon Florida’s coastal program, first heard about the Brown Booby sightings a couple of years ago, when reports began popping up on eBird (since May 2022, 172 confirmed sightings with photos have been uploaded to the site). In early September, she photographed a trio of the birds herself during one of her surveys at the park.

Pelagic birds—those that spend most of their lives at sea, coming to land only to nest—are notoriously difficult to see from dry land. To see a Brown Booby or other pelagic bird, like a Northern Gannet or Sooty Tern, your best bet is to take a pelagic trip (birding by boat). In Florida, Brown Boobies may have once nested in the Keys, but today they are usually found even further from the mainland, near the Dry Tortugas, where they perch on trees or navigational markers.

Her Tampa Bay sighting was a first for Cook. “This was my first time seeing Brown Boobies at a U.S. park,” she says. “I’ve also seen them foraging off of cruise ships in the Caribbean—it’s so cool to watch them plunge-dive for fish or squid!”

Cook suggests that perhaps this small group of boobies blew in with a hurricane, much like the flamingos that appeared across the state after Hurricane Idalia in 2023. While scientists don’t know exactly why birds choose to stay in an area outside of their typical range, the ability to find food is likely a factor. We also don’t know if the birds will breed here—a sure sign they are thriving.

If you’re planning a trip to Cypress Point Park in hopes of a Brown Booby sighting, Cook has some advice. “You need a scope or high-powered binoculars, as they’re pretty far offshore,” she says. “I can identify them with my binoculars because I know they hang out there, but if you have never seen them, it may be difficult to tell what you’re looking at.”

A good clue is to look at the channel markers: just like in the Dry Tortugas, the birds seem to enjoy perching on them in Tampa Bay.