A stowaway bird that traveled from Las Vegas to Westbrook in the back of a moving van this month has been safely returned to Nevada.
The greater roadrunner – a bird native to the Southwest and made famous in animated run-ins with Wile E. Coyote – was delivered to officials with the Nevada Department of Wildlife on Nov. 23.
Avian Haven, a nonprofit bird rehabilitation center in Freedom, shared information about the bird’s rescue here and journey home on the organization’s Facebook page.
“Delta Airlines had a direct flight from Boston/Logan Airport to Las Vegas early Tuesday morning, and our awesome volunteer transporter Don Fournier offered to drive to the airport for a check-in time of 6 a.m.,” according to a recent post.
When the plane landed, Nevada wildlife officials transported the roadrunner to its home neighborhood and released the bird from its plastic carrier.
The blur at the bottom is the roadrunner leaving the crate postehaste in Nevada. Image from video from KVVU-TV Fox5, Las Vegas
“After a few minutes of staring out the open door, the roadrunner bolted from the carrier and disappeared into his old neighborhood,” the post said.
The bird had traveled undetected for more than 2,800 miles from Nevada to Maine in a moving van. It was discovered unharmed on Nov. 13 when two men went to unload the van at a storage unit in Westbrook and transferred the bird to Avian Haven’s care.
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