[NatureNS] Exotic feathered visitor found near driveway -- Species normally

Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:42:20 -0300
From: Jim Wolford <jimwolford@eastlink.ca>
To: NatureNS <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
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Subject: Exotic feathered visitor found near driveway  -- Species normally
resides in Central and South America, male discovered last week first to be
found alive in N.S. -- Halifax Daily News, Monday, July 23, 2007


Halifax Daily News, Monday, July 23, 2007

Exotic feathered visitor found near driveway
Species normally resides in Central and South America, male discovered last
week first to be found alive in N.S.

PAUL MCLEOD 
The Daily News

PHOTO: [Also a colour photo of the bird appeared on the front page of the
newspaper] Hope for Wildlife volunteer Laura Bond examines a Red Billed
Tropic bird found on the shore in Three Fathom Harbour last week. (Daily
News/Sabrena Mackenzie)

When Eric Hiltz found a barely living bird next to his driveway in Three
Fathom Harbour last week, he had no idea the bird would be a first for Nova
Scotia.

The bird was unlike anything he had seen before, with a long tail-feather
and black-and-white striping.

It was exhausted and unable to move. After taking it in, bathing it,and
feeding it, Hiltz sent the bird to the Hope for Wildlife Society where its
identity was discovered.

After doing some research, staff confirmed it was a red-billed tropicbird.

Far from home

The bird normally resides near Central and South America.

It's so rare in Nova Scotia that this is the first one ever found alive in
the province. One bird that didn't make the journey washed up onshore last
year.

Not only is the bird a few thousand kilometres away from home, but it's less
than a year old. This is the bird's first summer journey North.

What no one's certain of is how it got here.

"My best guess, what happens with these birds sometimes, especially young
ones, is they start flying and they get swept up in a storm system and blown
way off course," said Dominic Cormier, the bird expert at Hope for Wildlife
who identified the bird.

Since being brought to the Seaforth-based shelter, the bird has continued to
gain strength. While at first it could not move at all, it is now able to
lift and move its head. It is being regularly fed and given fluids.

Normally the shelter would care for an animal until it can be released into
the wild. But this bird is posing a dilemma, said Hope Swinimer, the Hope
for Wildlife Society founder.

Two schools of thought

"There's two schools of thought. One is he turned up here (so) let him go
here. He's got all summer, he'll get stronger and he'll migrate back to
where he should go. The other school of thought is to fly him back to where
he should be," she said.

Swinimer said she is leaning towards contacting an animal rehabilitation
centre in the southern United States and flying the bird down to them.

pmcleod@hfxnews.ca 

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