Snowy Owl.Photo: Los Angeles Times/Getty

A Snowy owl perches on a home on the 11600 block of Onyx St., in Cypress on Friday, Dec. 30, 2022. The rare sighting had birdwatchers from throughout SOuthernCalifornia coming to the quiet neighborhood to see it up close. The owl, native to the Artic regions of North America and the Palearctic and which typically winters in Southern Canada and Northern United States, has been seen hanging around this Southern California neighborhood for about one week.

A suburban neighborhood in Southern California received an unlikely visitor: a snowy owl!

On Christmas Day, the rare snowy owl appeared on a roof in the city of Cypress in Orange County. Since then, bird lovers have flocked to marvel over and snap photos of the North Pole native.

“It’s like seeing Santa Claus on a beach,” Nancy Caruso, a neighbor who saw the owl, told theNew York Times. “Like that out of place, but cool.”

Per the outlet, neighbors have noticed that the bird takes off around 5 p.m. and reappears sometime later on a different roof.

Snowy owls are known to migrate from northern Canada to midwestern and northeastern United States during the winter, Lori Arent, the assistant director ofthe Raptor Centerat theCollege of Veterinary Medicineat the University of Minnesota told theTimes. However, it is “extremely rare” to find one in southern California.

Snowy Owl.Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty

Cypress, CA - December 27: A snowy owl perches on the top of a chimney of a home in Cypress on Tuesday afternoon, December 27, 2022, as bird watchers and photographers gather on the street below to see the very unusual sight. A snowy owl, certainly not native to Southern California, has made an appearance in a residential Cypress neighborhood, drawing avid ornithologists and curious bird gawkers alike. (Photo by Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

“It will be interesting to see how long this bird stays,” Arent told the outlet. “The question will be: Will this bird be able to find enough food to eat?”

How long he will stay remains unknown, but for now, his appearance is bringing joy to the neighborhood.

“The most exciting thing for me is that the public is reacting so positively,” Victor Leipzig, who teaches birding at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California, told theNew York Times.

“I was there on Tuesday of this week, and there were people from the local neighborhood who were just thrilled and people who had driven from a hundred miles away to see the bird,” he added.

source: people.com