EDGARTOWN, Mass. (AP) – The rare red-footed falcon that set birders’ hearts aflutter with its western hemisphere debut has apparently flown the coop.

The celebrated raptor, which drew flocks of birders to Martha’s Vineyard, has not been seen since Tuesday afternoon, said Gus Ben David, director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary.

“Where he is now, we don’t know,” Ben David said.

Simon Perkins, field ornithologist with the Massachusetts Audubon Society, said that the chances of this falcon being spotted again are “slim to none.”

“I’d be very surprised if anyone ever saw this one again. It would be a needle in a haystack,” Perkins told The Cape Cod Times.

Local birdwatcher Vernon Laux spotted the year-old male raptor on Aug. 8 flying near the Katama Airfield in Edgartown. It was the first documented sighting of a red-footed falcon in the western hemisphere, generating excitement throughout the birding world.

For more than two weeks, bird-watchers brought binoculars, cameras and tripods to the island for a glimpse of the falcon, coming from as far as Alaska, California, and Canada.

“It was an avian phenomenon I haven’t seen the likes of in a long time,” Ben David said.

The phone at the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce rang off the hook with callers asking about the falcon, and how best to get to the island, said chamber spokeswoman Carol Ward.

“We got tons of calls about the bird. It was incredible the amount of excitement it generated,” Ward said.

Laux said he met a man a few days after Hurricane Charley hit Florida whose house had been destroyed. The man nonetheless took his binoculars and drove north nonstop to get to see the falcon.

“This poor guy, he looked terrible. But when he saw the bird there was his big grin on his face,” Laux said.

AP-ES-08-28-04 0757EDT