A rare bird

Deepa Bharath

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

limped ashore with a fish hook lodged in her stomach.

Experts say the rare marine bird being nursed back to health at the

Wetlands and Wildlife Center in Huntington Beach probably followed a

fishing boat from La Jolla to Big Corona before making its way to dry

land last week. They say it 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.

Four days after limping ashore, 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.�

On Wednesday, the booby was still feeling weak and dilapidated from

not eating because of an infection, McGuire said.

“We also have a researcher from Canada who is studying the bird and

she thinks this booby may belong to a tribe that is close to extinction,�

she said. Whether this bird belongs to that rare group will be determined

by a DNA test, McGuire said.

“So we are still uncertain about how long we’re going to keep the bird

here,� she said. “If she belongs to that tribe, then we have to get her

back to her original breeding ground, probably in the Galapagos Islands.�

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 bird will also 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.�

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