Sandy puts Northern bird in Florida, great danger

The heavy rains and tortuous winds of Hurricane Sandy disrupted many lives, and now some wildlife officials believe the super storm may be to blame for a bird that is showing up in Southwest Florida, exhausted and starving.

Wildlife specialists have never seen a razorbill here, but 19 of them have recently been brought to places such as the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples and the Clinic for Rehabilitation of Wildlife on Sanibel. The black and white waterbirds usually don’t travel any further south than Virginia.

Experts say the birds mostly stay between Maine and New Jersey and prefer breeding in Iceland.

Sandy may have blown the small birds off course and destroyed their food supply. They are coming to Florida in search of food, but the long journey and lack of food they are used to eating is killing them. They normally eat schooling fish, crustaceans, herring and other invertebrates.

“It’s exhaustion and emaciation,” said Jessica Bender, wildlife rehabilitation specialist with the conservancy. “They are just really skinny and really tired.”

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