As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Cal woman hides bird rather than give to state


PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California woman sent a raven into hiding rather than let fish and game officials seize and kill the bird named Edgar.

"The state game warden threatened me with a misdemeanor citation and said Edgar would have to be euthanized," said Debby Porter, 59, who lives in Palmdale, 50 miles north of Los Angeles. "A misdemeanor doesn't mean that much to me, but I don't want Edgar euthanized."

Porter bought Edgar for $2,000 in 2006 in Alabama and raised him by hand at her Palmdale home where she's built two elaborate aviaries for blind or injured crows and ravens.

Keeping Edgar and the 20 other birds violates the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, wildlife officials told the Los Angeles Times.

On Aug. 29, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents took 20 birds, but left Edgar behind, saying he was an African pied-crow and brown-necked raven hybrid, not a North American migratory bird.

It wasn't long before the California Department of Fish and Game told her she had to turn over Edgar because she didn't have a permit to keep him.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Cal-woman-hides-bird-rather-than-give-to-state-4125020.php#ixzz2FPLXferX

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