Credit: Pixabay / CC0 Public Domain
Strange things often accumulate on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and the National Park Service says the latest example is a large, prehistoric-looking bird that is far from its natural range.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore says a sandhill crane has been seen wandering the grounds of the Bodie Island Lighthouse.
“These birds migrate from Florida and Texas to the western United States and are generally not seen in this area,” the park reported in a Facebook post on July 13.
“Sandhill cranes are one of the largest cranes in North America … They are three to four feet tall with a span of over six feet!”
A photo of the long-legged bird accompanied the post, inspiring others to report seeing it, too.
Explaining the presence of the strange creature could be a preventive move by the National Park Service.
Misplaced sandhill cranes, with their large bodies, skeletal legs, and distinctive red eyebrows, have been cited as a possible source for the popular West Virginia moth monster legend. (They are also not native to West Virginia.)
Witnesses have described the mothman “as a huge gray-winged creature with big red eyes,” according to The Mothman Wiki. “Someone who has never seen something like (a sandhill crane) before could easily get the impression that he is a flying man,” the site reports.
Commentators on the park’s Facebook post say the crane was large, loud, and “bad.” Some suggested that it had been “diverted” by recent storms and ended up in the park.
“It’s 2020, I’m not surprised, we’ll see unicorns soon,” Marcia Woodford posted in response to the park photo.
Sandhill cranes nest in the northern US, Canada, and even Siberia and then migrate over the winter to Mexico, Texas, and Florida, according to All About Birds.
They are an ancient species, prone to truly bizarre behavior, reports National Geographic.
“A fossil from the Miocene era, about ten million years ago, was found to be structurally the same as the modern sand crane,” says National Geographic. “The cranes also dance, run, jump high in the air and otherwise frolic, not only during mating but throughout the year.”
UV lights on power lines can help save Sandhill cranes
© 2020 The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina)
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
CitationExperts say: 4-foot prehistoric-looking bird seen at the Outer Banks Lighthouse is on the wrong shoreline (2020, July 15) retrieved on July 15, 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2020 -07-foot-prehistoric-looking -bird-outside-banks.html
This document is subject to copyright. Other than fair dealing for private study or research purposes, no part may be reproduced without written permission. The content is provided for informational purposes only.
