When a worker at Ogden Point saw a strange looking bird Monday, shivering and looking very weak she flew to its rescue.
June Pigeon called the SPCA for advice. They told her to place the bird in a box in a warm place until it could be delivered to the agency.
Meantime she posted photos online in the hopes of figuring out what the bird was, and the city's birding community came up with the answer. It's a Brown Booby, a tropical bird way off course.
The creature is 30% underweight and had a puncture wound in its chest. It's in the care of the BC SPCA's Wild Animal Rehabilitation centre in Metchosin. It's believed the bird is a 2 year old female.
The very sick bird is in the right hands -- over the past year Wild ARC has cared for 2,207 injured and orphaned birds -- but never a Brown Booby.
The female booby can grow weigh almost 3 pounds, 31 in (80cm) in length, and has a wingspan up to 4.9 ft (150 cm). They are not usually found north of the Gulf of California, and feed by plunging into the ocean for fish or squid.