Was Blown 700 Miles by Storm : Silver Wings Carry Bird From Boston to Bermuda

A tropical bird stranded in Massachusetts by Hurricane Gloria flew 700 miles back home today to its native Bermuda--in the baggage compartment of a jet.

An ornithologist greeted the 11-ounce, 8-inch-long white bird with jet-black flecks and stripes and said it would be set free on a beach.

The bird, a White-Tailed Tropic named Kim, took off earlier from Logan International Airport in Boston in a Delta Airlines jet. The bird was chaperoned by a teacher from a boarding school where she was found.

The bird was discovered on the soccer field at Governor Dummer Academy in Byfield, Mass., on Sept. 28, one day after Gloria’s 100-m.p.h. winds ripped along the New England coast.

Ilse Abusamra, 10, and her mother, Laurel Abusamra, an English teacher at the academy, carried the bird home in a box and began nursing her back to health with fish.

They named the bird Kim and contacted ornithologists at the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

The experts identified Kim as the national bird of Bermuda, a White-Tailed Tropic.

Bermuda and the Bahamas are the only spots in the region where the birds are known to nest, Audubon ornithologist Richard Forster said.

Forster, who said the birds’ population declined at the turn of the century when their tail feathers were highly prized by hatmakers, speculated that Kim had been carried about 700 miles to Massachusetts by the storm.

Since the trip home to Bermuda was too far to let Kim wing it alone, the school bought Abusamra and the bird a ticket on the southward flight.