While people often see birds wandering the city, this time a Good Samaritan noticed something unusual, a tiny ball struggling near the road in Hewlett Harbor, New York.
The small, duck-like creature was floundering on the far side of the street and the witness felt compelled to act. Luckily, a security officer happened to be passing by, and the helpful passerby flagged him down.
Although the officer found it odd that the bird was barely moving, he assumed it was a duckling. To protect it from traffic and curious hands, he covered the animal with a cardboard box and called a local wildlife rescuer.
Both the passerby and the officer were in for an unexpected discovery.
Not A Duckling After All
When Karenlynn Stracher, a well-known wildlife rehabilitator and rescuer in New York, arrived at the scene, she was already puzzled by the officer’s description.
“When the officer first found me, he told me that he had found an injured duckling,” Stracher told The Dodo. “I told him that it would be very unusual to have a duckling this time of year.”
Still, she did not want to jump to conclusions until she could see the animal herself. Carefully, she lifted the cardboard box and peered inside to get a proper look.
She was right to be cautious. The tiny bird was not a duckling at all, but a pied-billed grebe. Stracher noted it was uncommon to encounter a grebe in that corner of the country.
“They’re not common in this area. They’re much more common on the West Coast,” Stracher told the officer in a video taken at the site. “But they do end up here. You see them on occasion.”
Without delay, Karenlynn placed the bird into a carrier, and at last the little creature was in a safe space.
A Specific Health Concern
Even though grebes occasionally show up far from their usual range, Karenlynn wondered why this one was found on land rather than in water.
Pied-billed grebes normally inhabit sluggish rivers, freshwater marshes, lakes, and estuaries, so finding one stranded on a shoreline raised red flags.
For that reason, Stracher took the bird home to examine her more closely. There were no obvious injuries and the grebe seemed calm despite the unfamiliar surroundings.
“It was clear she was nervous, but she was not panicking or struggling at all,” Stracher said.
One main issue could explain the bird’s plight, so Karenlynn set up a simple test. She filled a tub with water and gently placed the grebe inside to observe how her feathers behaved.
What she discovered matched her concern, a point she later demonstrated in a clip on her TikTok profile.
“It is clear here that her feathers are getting wet,” Stracher said in the video, adding. “Her waterproofing is not what it should be.”
Because pied-billed grebes spend most of their lives on or under water, waterproof feathers are vital. A lack of waterproofing can result from parasites, poor nutrition, malfunctioning preen glands, stress, or other common causes, and it was likely one of these factors affecting this grebe.
An experienced rehabilitator, Karenlynn knew the risks and acted quickly to get the bird professional help.
On The Road To Recovery
Though the condition required more resources than Stracher could provide at home, she knew exactly where to turn. She contacted the wildlife specialists at Sweetbriar Nature Center.
There, experts with the proper facilities would work to identify the root cause of the grebe’s inability to waterproof and treat whatever was impairing her plumage.
Once they restore her waterproofing and health, the plan is to return her to suitable habitat.
“We expect she will be fully releasable come springtime,” Stracher said.
In the end, although this tiny bird had been separated from the water she needed, the right people were on the case. With prompt rescue and expert care, the hope is that her story will have a happy ending and that she will soon be back where she belongs.