Snowy owl found in Southern California suburb

CYPRESS, Calif. — Snowbirds are pretty common around Southern California during winter — except when they're actually a bird.

That's why crowds of bird watchers have been showing up in an Orange County neighborhood to gawk at a snowy owl, a species normally found around the North Pole, Canada and northern U.S. states. Its current home is a rooftop in the city of Cypress.

“It is absolutely unique as a bird observation,” Vic Leipzig, who teaches birding at Saddleback College, told The Orange County Register this week.

The newspaper reported that local bird experts speculated that the bird could have arrived in Southern California aboard a ship or could be a captive bird that escaped.

“It’s a beautiful thing to see,” Leipzig said. “That there were so many people standing there watching this thing was very thrilling to me."