The red-footed booby (Sula sula) was spotted off Thomas Point Park in Anne Arundel County, hundreds of miles away from its usual haunt in the tropics. “It was only the second red-footed booby officially recorded in the state,” Steve Sheffield, a field biologist at the University of Maryland and president of the Maryland Ornithological Society, tells Popular Science. Maryland saw its first red-footed booby back in 2024. While it has not been seen since late June, another rare tropical species has been spotted in Maryland. Birders caught its relative the brown booby (Sula leucogaster) visiting boats and stopping on buoys around the Chesapeake in July.