Tropical bird likely blown off course by hurricane dies


              FILE - This Sept. 26, 2017, file photo, photo provided by Wild Care, Inc., shows a masked booby, a tropical seabird rescued from a Cape Cod beach, at the organization's wildlife rehabilitation facility in Eastham, Mass. The tropical bird believed to be the first of its type seen in Massachusetts has died after it was likely blown off course by Hurricane Jose. The wildlife rehabilitation facility said Monday, Oct. 2, that the masked booby died overnight. (Stephanie Ellis/Wild Care, Inc., via AP, File)
FILE - This Sept. 26, 2017, file photo, photo provided by Wild Care, Inc., shows a masked booby, a tropical seabird rescued from a Cape Cod beach, at the organization's wildlife rehabilitation facility in Eastham, Mass. The tropical bird believed to be the first of its type seen in Massachusetts has died after it was likely blown off course by Hurricane Jose. The wildlife rehabilitation facility said Monday, Oct. 2, that the masked booby died overnight. (Stephanie Ellis/Wild Care, Inc., via AP, File)

EASTHAM, Mass. (AP) - A tropical bird believed to be the first of its type seen in Massachusetts has died after it was likely blown off course by Hurricane Jose.

Wild Care Cape Cod, a wildlife rehabilitation facility in Eastham, said Monday that the masked booby died overnight. It was found last week at a Cape Cod beach.

They say the bird's condition was "grim" from the beginning and it became worse on Sunday.

A necropsy will be performed by Tufts University. Then the bird will be taken to the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology to be exhibited.

Massachusetts Audubon science coordinator Mark Faherty says a masked booby had never before been reported on the state's soil.

The seabirds are more common in the Gulf of Mexico.

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