Head to Kingman and Heritage Islands today, and you might be able to catch a rare glimpse of a certain graceful, long-necked bird with a slate blue, white, and copper feathers, dipping its long bill in the water.

D.C.’s bird watchers have reported multiple sightings of a tricolored heron near the islands this past week. The first local sighting recorded on eBird was on Aug. 16 by Olivia Sandbothe, who uploaded photos of the bird strutting on mudflats with its slender yellow legs. There have been 38 more sightings of the bird documented on eBird as of Tuesday.

Dan Rauch, wildlife biologist at the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment, says that tricolored herons are only spotted in D.C. every few years.

“It’s a cool chance to get out and see something which is not usually seen in the District,” Rauch told DCist/WAMU. “It’s pretty awesome looking.”

Tricolored herons are shorebirds that winter along the coast from Florida to South America. It’s part of their natural migration to flap up and down the Atlantic coast throughout the summer, finding marshes and rivers to settle in along the way. They pass through the mid-Atlantic and the Chesapeake Bay region, but only occasionally will a heron stray a little further west.

Rauch says that the Potomac and the Anacostia Rivers offer friendly corridors for the birds to visit. That the the heron is here, Rauch said, is a good sign that the District has some healthy wetlands.

“As more wetland restoration efforts are successful along the Anacostia River and the Potomac, we’ll see more of those birds stopping here to feed,” Rauch said. “At least one has been around for a week. That means it’s found a very healthy marsh. There’s plenty of food for there to stop over, to replenish and sustain it until it feels like moving on.”

But Rauch doesn’t expect an influx of tricolored herons anytime soon. This specific species of heron doesn’t breed around D.C., but their populations farther south are pretty stable.

If you do see a blue, long necked heron, it’s very possible it’s the same one all the other bird watchers have spotted. But Rauch wonders if there might be another tricolored heron in the area – one at Kingman Island and another in the Tidal Basin. It could also just be one heron, sampling fish from a variety of the District’s wetlands.