Use Entries fieldtype functionality in plugin populated by REST api data Is it possible to use the Entries FieldType widget in my plugin and populate the modal with data from a third party REST API?
You are speaking of the Element Selector Modal. It is javascript and available to use by third-party devs, but the code is specific to Craft Elements (Entries, Assets, Users, etc.). I don't think you'll get it to work with information polled from a third-party API. 

There's a post about it in the Craft Dev Google+ group (invite only), but I'm not sure if the info exists anywhere else.