As It Happens6:08This rare loon brought the Bellagio Hotel’s famous Vegas fountain show to a halt
While it’s common to see crowds of people gathered outside the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, they’re not usually there for birdwatching.
But recently, a rare juvenile yellow-billed loon took up residence in the hotel’s artificial lake, putting the Bellagio’s famous fountain show on temporary hiatus.
“He’s been big news for the last week,” Kurt Buzard, senior recreation assistant at the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve near Vegas, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
“They have almost as many visitors coming to see him as they did coming to see the fountains. So he’s a big draw.”
Wildlife officials relocated the loon to the wilderness on Wednesday, and the Bellagio fountains are back on their regular schedule.
A rare yellow-billed loon that temporarily took over the Bellagio Resort & Casino’s fountain lake in Las Vegas was captured on Monday and “relocated to a more suitable and remote location where it has space, food and quiet surroundings,” says the Nevada Department of Wildlife. (Credit: Nevada Department of Wildlife)
Yellow-billed loons are coastal birds, not desert birds.
They generally breed in the Arctic tundras of Alaska and the Northwest Territories, then winter in southern Alaska and along the coast of British Columbia, according to the National Audubon Society, a bird conservation organization.
But in recent years, single juvenile yellow-billed loons have been spotted far from their usual territory, wintering on reservoirs and lakes as far east as Illinois and Arkansas, and as far south as Arizona and Texas.
Buzard says he first spotted the loon at the preserve in Henderson, Nev., on Feb. 26. The next day, he says, it showed up at the Bellagio, about 18 kilometres away.
He suspects it was blown off course by a storm and ended up in Vegas by accident.
“Or maybe it wanted to go gambling,” he said with a chuckle. “You never know.”
However it got there, the wayward loon got the star treatment in Vegas. The Las Vegas Review-Journal dubbed him “Las Vegas’ hottest new celebrity,” and people flocked to the casino lake to catch a glimpse of it.
“We are happy to welcome the most exclusive guests,” the Bellagio, which is owned by MGM Resorts, posted on social media. “The Fountains of Bellagio are paused as we work with state wildlife officials to rescue a yellow-billed Loon.”
The International Union for Conservation lists yellow-billed loons as “near-threatened,” with a population estimate of between 11,000 and 21,000 adults. Canada considers them “a priority for conservation and/or stewardship.”
The U.S. National Park Service says they are one of the 10 rarest birds in the U.S.
Water everywhere, but not a fish to eat
While the Bellagio fountain lake may look like a perfectly good habitat from the sky, it’s artificial with nary a fish for a loon to snack upon. So the Nevada Department of Wildlife decided to step in.
“The loon, generally associated with coastal areas, was captured by biologists early this morning and relocated to a more suitable and remote location where it has space, food and quiet surroundings,” spokesperson C. Douglas Nielsen told CBC in an email.
“According to the biologist who oversaw the capture, the bird had no apparent injuries and appeared to be in good health.”
Both wildlife officials and Buzard thanked the hotel for shutting off its fountains for the loon.
“The poor thing really didn’t have anything to eat, and so if he would have been frightened away, I don’t know what might have become of him,” Buzard said.
While he’s always thrilled at the chance to see a rare bird, Buzard warns that climate change-induced weather events and temperature changes appear to be driving more and more of them off their normal migratory routes.
“Birds are sort of the canary in the coal mine,” he said. “The canary’s telling is us that nature is in trouble and we need to do something.”
