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RIVERHEAD, Long Island ( WCBS ) -- Birders are going cuckoo for a rare sight on Long Island. The common cuckoo bird has been spotted only four times in U.S. history in the lower 48 states, experts say. Now, it's in Riverhead.

Hundreds of people have traveled from dozens of states, hoping for a glimpse of the bird that is native to Europe and was blown off course.

"We started a crazy viral birder insanity," said Roy William Gardner, the eagle-eyed golfer who first saw the cuckoo.

Gardner said he was in a golfcart moving between holes when he spotted "an unusual bird going post to post." He texted photos of the bird to his nephew, an ornithologist from Cornell and now a bird biologist at UCLA.

"It's pretty amazing that my uncle, who's a non-birder,

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