This week, cattle farmers on Ruhnu Island in the Gulf of Riga discovered a dead bird of prey they visually identified as a barn owl (Loorkakk), which is widely found in warmer areas of Europe, when they came to check the animals.

Marten Riisenberg told the evening news show "Aktuaalne kaamera" the owl was found at the bottom of a hay barn.

"Out of the corner of your eye, you see something white. At first, you think it's a chunk of snow, and then you look closer and see a wing lying under a body," he said.

"We could see that it didn't have a ring on it, but if someone more knowledgeable takes a closer look, it would be really exciting to find out more," Riisenberg added.

Kee Abel told the show: "As far as we've been able to research our find, it looks like in Europe it usually lives in warmer areas."

Marko Mägi, bird ecologist at the University of Tartu, said it is hard to tell exactly how the owl made it to Estonian territory.

"It is likely it came from the south. Looking at the species' range, it is quite common in Central and Southern Europe. The closest known areas to us are in southern Latvia, and it is very likely it reached Ruhnu by some kind of errant migration and died accidentally," he said.

Mägi described the sighting as "extremely rare." Estonia has won more medals at the Winter Olympic Games – 10 – than barn owls have been seen on Estonian territory, he said.

"Up until now, it has been seen eight times. The most recent of those was, in birding circles, what you might call a doping case, where a bird that had escaped from a cage was spotted. Many people rushed to Tartu hoping to tick the species off their list, only to be disappointed when it turned out the bird had escaped from captivity," he said.

You can watch the broadcast here, in Estonian.

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