A lost seabird from the coasts of Atlantic Canada has been found thousands of kilometres from home: lost puffin, on a busy downtown Montreal street.
The director of a local bird-rehabilitation centre said the young Atlantic puffin is lucky to be alive. lost puffin,
Susan Wylie of Le Nichoir said an observant veterinary technician rescued the bird from a bustling boulevard last week.
“He was running in the street,” Wylie said Tuesday.
“Luckily, she knew what type of bird it was and grabbed him. And they don’t run very quickly because they’re diving birds.”
The Atlantic puffin is the beloved, official bird of Newfoundland and Labrador — which is home to nearly all Canadian puffin breeding grounds.
Wylie said the rescued puffin is in good health as it waits to catch an Air Canada flight Thursday closer to its likely home: Newfoundland.
From there, a seabird expert in St. John’s will care for the puffin until it can be released back into the wild.
In the meantime, Wylie said the puffin will continue to bunk in a bathtub at a volunteer’s home outside Montreal, where the bird has been munching on two daily meals of cut smelts.
The bird, which is about the size of three fists, is less than a year old and it’s unclear whether it’s male or female, she said.
Workers at Le Nichoir have no idea how the puffin found its way to Montreal, but one theory is that it might have boarded a ship from Atlantic Canada.
Wylie said the centre, which is based in the western Quebec town of Hudson, receives around 1,500 birds a year, but this was its first puffin.
“It’s a nice story for Christmas,” said Wylie, who is a biologist.
“It’s a happy story, which is good.”
Source: thestar
