Martha’s Vineyard, Aug. 17: A lonely visitor from Europe has achieved the rare feat of upstaging those who every summer turn the island of Martha’s Vineyard into a hub of wealth, power and stardom.

Even the Clintons, the most glamorous couple in residence, have been outshone by the new arrival, who avoids the New England resort’s smart seafood restaurants, preferring to hunt for dragonflies and grasshoppers instead.

Birdwatchers have descended on the island from across North America to catch a glimpse of the foreigner, a single, male, red-footed falcon never before sighted on that side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Far from home in central Europe, the falcon perches on a sign at a small airfield, occasionally performing its star turn, hovering and then swooping down from the heavens, for the benefit of small crowds of admirers camped nearby.

The visit’s significance is “pretty incredibly huge”, said Jason Estep, who had travelled from Ohio and was squinting at the falcon through a high-powered telescope.

Locals and holidaymakers are by now used to spotting famous faces “on the vineyard” and the likes of Bill, Hillary or Chelsea Clinton, Spike Lee, Carly Simon or Walter Cronkite go almost unnoticed in its resorts such as Edgartown or Oak Bluffs. But the falcon has won genuine celebrity cachet, attracting “birders” to the island with paparazzi-style zoom lenses and telescopes.

“If he ever goes home, he’s going to have the choice of all the girls,” said Estep, himself in trouble with his girlfriend for leaving Ohio without saying goodbye in the rush. “He’ll have quite a story to tell.”