A rare bird

Deepa Bharath

It was pretty much a booby trap for the injured bird that virtually

limped her way into Big Corona beach with a fish hook lodged in her

stomach.

Experts say the rare marine bird that probably followed a fishing boat

from La Jolla to Big Corona on Saturday evening is a masked booby -- a

close cousin of the blue-footed booby, a species commonly found in the

Galapagos Islands. The birds migrate north when it is summer in the

Southern Hemisphere.

A Newport Beach Animal Control officer found the bird on the beach,

injured and too weak to move, said Debbie McGuire, wildlife coordinator

at the Wetlands and Wildlife Center in Huntington Beach.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department has followed the bird from San

Diego, she said.

“They believe that this bird and another booby were fishing off the

cliffs in La Jolla,� McGuire said. “They think this one got knocked off

by a wave and started following a fishing boat going north. It makes

sense.�

The injured bird had a fish hook in its stomach and a fishing line

about 18 inches long attached to it.

“She was bleeding a little internally, and her blood count was low

when she came in,� McGuire said. “The webbing on one of her feet was also

damaged, and she had hurt the top of her beak as well.�

Doctors had to use an endoscope to remove the hook and line.

On Wednesday afternoon, the masked booby seemed disoriented and was

shaking from weakness. McGuire said the bird still was not feeling very

well.

“These fish eaters are used to diving into the ocean and catching

fish,� she said. “Here, she has to eat from a bowl, and that’s difficult

for her to get used to.�

This is the first time the center has received a masked booby,

director Greg Hickman said.

The center, which houses about 500 injured wild birds at any given

time, has to wing it most of the time when it comes to rare species, he

said.

“However rare the species, anatomy is anatomy,� Hickman said. “The

procedure of treating certain types of injuries is common to different

species.�

For example, the masked booby has a beak shaped like a spear and that

indicates that she is a fish eater. The webbed feet suggest she is a

swimmer, flier or diver. The last time a blue-footed booby was seen in

Newport Beach was in June 1992.

The bird will stay in the shelter for at least two weeks, McGuire

said.

“We don’t want to keep them longer than that because they’re not

really happy here,� she said. The bird will undergo some “physical

therapy� before she leaves to ensure she can survive in her natural

habitat.

“We’ll make her fly within the cage and get her wet to make the oil

glands in her body work,� McGuire explained. “That’s what makes them

waterproof.�

* Deepa Bharath covers public safety and courts. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .

FYI

THE MASKED BOOBY

* It is one of the largest of the booby family.

* It can plunge vertically from 40 feet in the air to six to 10 feet

underwater.

* The male makes a high-pitched whistle, and the female makes a

louder, lower honk or trumpet.

* It eats flying fish and small squid by plunge diving.

* It is uncommon in the Gulf of Mexico and rare northward on the

Atlantic Coast to the outer banks of North Carolina. It is a casual

visitor to Southern California.

Source: Smithsonian Handbooks