Nature Done Wright

My latest column in The Record and other USA Today newspapers in New Jersey is all about a Yellow-crowned Night Heron with four wings that was found in Brooklyn earlier this summer and ultimately taken to The Raptor Trust, where two wings were removed.

An amazing story — just happy to be able to report it and share it.

The Raptor Trust shared the post-op photo above of the heron being released. It also shared an X-ray of the heron — shown below.

I did not have room for this comment from Rita McMahon of NYC's Wild Bird Fund, who brought the bird to The Raptor Trust after it had been found in Brooklyn: "People talk about indifferent New Yorkers, but New Yorkers really care. They go to great lengths to help wildlife. After the pandemic, people are seeing nature more and they’re trying to help it more.  That’s the silver lining of all we’ve been going through."

You can read the column here:

By Jim Wright

Special to The Record

This may be the strangest bird story you’ll ever read, and it’s all true.

In July, a young yellow-crowned night heron was found in Brooklyn and brought to Manhattan’s Wild Bird Fund, the city’s only wildlife center. This heron, however,  wasn't your typical stocky, short-necked night heron. The bird had four — that’s right, four — wings. 

What’s more, the bird didn't have two wings on each side, like some prehistoric microraptor. This heron had three wings on one side.

“It was alarming to see,” says Rita McMahon, director of the Wild Bird Fund. “If you lifted up his right wing, he had two other wings underneath that hung down to the floor. He would walk on them and poop on them. He could fly, but those extra wings were a helluva lot of extra baggage.”

The good news was that the superfluous wings had no bones connecting them to the bird’s spine or rib cage:  “It could flap its proper wings and, we knew it could be operated on,” McMahon says.

This was a case for The Raptor Trust, an avian rehab center near the Great Swamp.

For Jennifer Norton, the trust’s veterinary surgeon, the extra wings were a first: “I’ve seen extra appendages in amphibians, but never in a bird. I think it’s pretty rare – or at least not something that survives in the wild long enough for a human to notice and rescue.” 

When Norton examined the bird, she wondered what caused the extra wings. An environmental problem? A genetic anomaly? Or “perhaps it was the result of a twinning in the egg, where most of one embryo was re-absorbed except for the wings” — a theory shared by McMahon. 

The operation to remove the extra wings — "a fairly straightforward skin and vascular procedure" — took 30 minutes. Afterward, the heron appeared no worse for wear.

 “A few feathers on its back have grown in a little askew, and there’s some scar tissue where the extra wings were amputated,” says Chris Soucy, Raptor Trust’s executive director.  “That shouldn’t be a significant impediment to its survival, and perhaps those feathers will come in more fully over time when the bird molts each year.”

In early August, Raptor Trust staff released the heron at a rookery in Ocean City. They watched the young bird fly off into the marsh — completing an odyssey that began in Brooklyn, with stops in Manhattan and the Great Swamp.

“I'm glad we had the opportunity to intervene and help this little heron,” says Norton. "It’s nice to have interesting cases that are simple and end on a positive note – release! In this field, unfortunately, we see many cases that are not simple or treatable. So a case like this is great for uplifting overall morale and stimulating everyone's interest in our ongoing mission.”

FIELD NOTES: This year’s Meadowlands Birding Festival is Sunday, Sept. 12 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst. The free outdoor event will feature walks, talks, children’s activities and live music. The event is sponsored by Bergen County Audubon and the N.J. Sports and Exposition Authority. Chances are that any yellow-crowned night herons you might see there will have only two wings.

The Bird Watcher column appears every other Thursday. Email Jim at celeryfarm@gmail.com.

Photos courtesy of The Raptor Trust.