Slater Museum Receives Rare Bird Specimen
September 22, 2006

Tacoma, Wash. - One day in mid August, a passing motorist saw what he thought was a Bald Eagle resting on the Oregon side of the I-5 Bridge across the Columbia River. He reported it to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, who sent an agent to pick it up. It was tentatively identified as a Cormorant and taken to the Portland Audubon Society’s Wildlife Care Center, where it was finally correctly identified as a Booby, a tropical seabird not normally found in the Pacific Northwest region. As a Blue-footed Booby had just been photographed in Washington State, experts thought this might be the same bird or another of the same species.
 
The bird unfortunately died during an attempt at rehabilitation, and its body was frozen. Gary Shugart, Collection Manager at the Slater Museum of Natural History, learned of the bird and its plight on an internet listserve dedicated to birds. He immediately contacted the center and asked if the specimen might be donated to the Slater Museum. Bob Sallinger, director of the Wildlife Care Center, agreed. Some time later, Dennis Paulson, director emeritus of the museum, collected the specimen and transported it back to the Puget Sound campus in Tacoma, Wash.
 
As Dr. Shugart began preparing the specimen for exhibit, Dr. Paulson, a renowned expert on shorebirds, realized it was not a Blue-footed Booby, but instead an immature Masked Booby, a much rarer species on the Pacific coast of North America.

Having never been reported before north of northern California, this is a very exciting discovery, thoroughly documented by the deposition of the specimen in the Slater Museum. Tissue samples were taken from the specimen that might help in determining the colony from which it originated. The nearest breeding colonies are off the west coast of Mexico, but the species occurs throughout the tropical Pacific and Caribbean.

The Slater Museum of Natural History maintains the largest research and teaching natural history collection at a liberal arts college, Washington state’s second largest collection of natural artifacts, including mammals, reptiles, birds, and insects, and one of the world’s most important bird-wind collections.

Founded in 1930, the museum and its treasure-trove of more than 65,000 meticulously cataloged specimens is a remarkable tool for Puget Sound students and faculty, visiting scholars from the Pacific Northwest and beyond, and Tacoma-area school teachers and their students. More details about this rare find and photos are available on the Slater Museum’s website.

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