Birder catches meandering mango in attempt to save it from cold
By The Associated Press

MILWAUKEE — A Mexican hummingbird wandering far from home has been saved from a Wisconsin winter.

The green-breasted mango was caught Monday and delivered to the Wisconsin Humane Society Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Milwaukee. It will be sent to a perching bird house in the Brookfield Zoo outside of Chicago.
The green-breasted mango is normally seen in parts of Mexico and Central America but was spotted near Beloit in September.

It delighted Midwestern birders when it began eating at a strawberry-shaped feeder in Joan and Karl Salzberg’s back yard. It was the first sighting of the green-breasted mango north of North Carolina, and hundreds traveled to catch a glimpse.

But experts feared the bird would not be able to make it far enough south before the cold struck and killed it.

Mike Ramsden, the birder who first identified the mango, lured it into a cage Monday.

Scott Diehl, wildlife manager at the rehabilitation center in Milwaukee, said it’s doing well in an enclosure with several perches and feeders and should be safe at the Brookfield Zoo.

“They’ve assured us, and we know from reputation, they have wonderful capabilities to care for a bird like this,” Diehl said.

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