A visit by a rare fine-feathered tourist to the Las Vegas Strip interrupted a major water show at a hotel-casino before wildlife biologists captured the yellow-billed loon and relocated it, unharmed, to a remote location Wednesday unspecified where they expect it to resume. its migratory journey north.
The Bellagio said in a posts on social media It put its fountains on hold Tuesday after the loon “found solace on Lake Bellagio in Las Vegas.”
On Wednesday, the bird was removed by the Nevada Department of Wildlife, and the resort’s music and choreographed water-spray show resumed in the afternoon, MGM Resorts International spokesman Brian Ahern said.
The yellow-billed loon is a species of international concern considered “one of the 10 rarest birds regularly breeding in the continental United States,” according to the National Park Service.
Initially, the fountain shows were put on hold while officials figured out how to proceed, Ahern said.
Concerned birders asked state wildlife officials to intervene, department spokesman Doug Nielsen said. The bird, a juvenile, likely sought shelter from a storm, Nielsen said, noting that it is not uncommon for migratory birds to visit the valley.
“They normally nest around the Arctic Circle and winter in Canada, the United States, Norway or Siberia,” said Kurt Buzard, a veteran birdwatcher who said he believes he saw the same distinctive bird a week ago at the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve in southeast of Las Vegas. “I think he’s lost and probably disoriented.”
Buzard said the last time he remembered hearing about a yellow-billed loon in southern Nevada was in the late 1990s at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Nye County, northwest of Las Vegas.
He feared that because neither the Bellagio Reservoir nor the former municipal water treatment pond at the Henderson Reservoir had fish, the bird he saw would be too hungry to continue its migratory path.
Security officials working with wildlife biologists initially hoped the uninvited guest would leave on his own without needing an escort.
But Nielsen said in an email to The Associated Press that he decided Wednesday morning to capture and relocate the bird “to a more suitable and remote location where it has space, food and a calm environment.”
“According to the biologist who oversaw the capture, the bird had no obvious injuries and appeared to be in good health,” the state wildlife department official said.
Nielsen said the birds sometimes lose their way during their annual migration due to strong winds or bad weather conditions.
“The important thing at this point is that the bird is where it has the opportunity to reorient itself and resume its northward migration,” he said.