Rare migratory sea-bird rescued from Vikhroli

A rare sea-bird belonging to the migratory booby family was rescued after it was spotted being attacked by crows at Vikhroli on Wednesday.

"A colleague of mine saw the bird at Godrej complex around 5pm on Wednesday. It was sitting on the road after being harassed by crows. At first he thought it was a duck. But after we examined the bird closely, we realised it was from the booby family," said naturalist Amar Deshpande, who immediately phoned up rescue organisation RAWW.

Deshpande said while the NGO members were on their way, they kept the bird in a box. "It is a rare bird listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Since it is a migratory bird and not native to India, it could have lost its way or dropped down due to fatigue. We are still trying to confirm if it is a masked booby," he said.

RAWW founder Pawan Sharma said they met Deshpande and took the bird to Thane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and got the bird examined by the veterinarians. "We wanted to check if it was injured but the bird looked normal, except for a little portion of wings on its tail, which seemed damaged," he said.

An X-ray of the bird was also conducted. "We wanted to release it after confirming there were no internal injuries. So, we took it to Dr Deepa Katyal on Thursday for a check-up," said Sharma.

Speaking to dna, Dr Katyal said the bird looked like a masked booby and these are known to take long migration paths. "The bird seemed to be completely exhausted, due to which it could have been disoriented. It even seemed to be starved. We get a few rescued boobies around this time of the year, which are then treated and released," she said.