Photographer accidently captures blue rock-thrush, becomes celebrity

A photography hobbyist from Vancouver, Washington, who was out taking pictures with his new camera at Oregon’s Hug Point at the day break, captured something so unique that it made headlines all over and he ended up becoming a star.

Michael Sanchez captured several photos of a bird that was hopping nearby. It was all normal and some inconspicuous until he was shaken.

The middle school brand director was a star a week later because of those pictures as he did not know he snapped an East Asian native bird which was spotted in North America only once in 1997.

The bird was a rare blue rock-thrush whose sightings were rejected back in the day by the American Birding Association.

Sanchez said: "I was very very surprised to see just how stirred up this got folks. It’s mind-blowing."

Sanchez never regarded himself as a birder, however, he was amazed to see the cute bird he never saw before.

"So I thought, I’ve got to post it on the socials, right?" After that he was reached out by someone who had knowledge about birds.

It was identified as a male blue rock thrush from its unique blue and chestnut plumage.

Brodie Cass Talbott, of the Bird Alliance of Oregon and the Oregon Birding Association: "A lot of times when something like this happens, there’s a lot of effort among the birding community to try and verify it, because everyone wants to go and see it for themselves."

According to the Guardian, there was another blue rock thrush sighting after four days at the Farallon Islands off the San Francisco coast. One sighting also came in January.

Experts started the process of verifying the picture and the location as the sighting is very rare.

It remains unknown how the bird reached here.