Last weekend’s 75 mile per hour winds brought an unexpected visitor to the region…more than a thousand miles away from its likely home. KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.
It’s called a brown booby (and yes, I can say that on air). The bird was spotted by a couple on a beach outside Newport last Sunday, who reported it to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Spokeswoman Sally Compton says the brown booby is quite far from its last recorded habitat.
“These birds are actually native to more tropical and sub-tropical locations," says Compton. "So think off the coast of Mexico, Central America, warmer climates.
"And there’s actually just last year that biologists found the first breeding pairs of these species, in the Channel Islands of California.”
Less than twenty occurrences of brown boobies have ever been recorded in Oregon. This latest one is being fed and rehabilitated by aquarium staff, for its eventual return to California.
Copyright 2018, KLCC.