It looked a bit like the kind that flies like a boomerang
October 10, 2011 5:14 PM   Subscribe

Can anybody help identify this bird?

More pics here. This is a bird I found, stunned, on a coastal road just outside of Halifax, NS this afternoon. I took him for a little road trip and after a couple of hours he'd perked up enough to be able to fly; wobbily, but I figured that was good enough so I left him perched in a spruce tree.
But I have no idea what kind of bird this was. Any ideas?
posted by Flashman to Science & Nature (5 answers total)
 
Best answer: Yellow-billed cuckoo? A bit outside its range. Did you guys just have a storm?
posted by hydrobatidae at 5:17 PM on October 10, 2011


Response by poster: Wow, nice work. The Yellow-billed cuckoo sure fits the bill (ha. ha.). And we did have a big storm about a week ago - a bunch of cruise ships had to spend the night in the port. Well, I hope he can get his bearings and make it down south before it gets too cold.
posted by Flashman at 5:28 PM on October 10, 2011


This sightings map at ebirds seems to indicate that - especially with the storm - your bird would not be impossible there at this time of year. If you google up rare bird+your town/county/province, there's probably a committee to whom you can report the find. It's for Science!
posted by rtha at 5:36 PM on October 10, 2011


There are reports of yellow-billed cuckoo in Nova Scotia on the NS rare bird list, even! (Don't know if any of them are near where you found your bird.)
posted by rtha at 5:38 PM on October 10, 2011


Response by poster: That's really interesting, rtha, thanks. I'll definitely let them know - they don't seem to have been especially rare up here recently. One was sighted this morning in Dartmouth, just on the other side of Halifax, a few days ago one was seen right where I found this little guy or girl (maybe it was this same specimen), and last week one was seen at Duncan's Cove, right where I ended up leaving him. So I'm happy that they won't be alone!
posted by Flashman at 5:58 PM on October 10, 2011


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