Exotic game bird spotted in Calgary

There's an unusualbird strolling around northwest Calgary right now.

Mike McLeangot a glimpse of itduring a Sunday drive through Sandstone, the community just northeast of Nose Hill Park.

"There was an elderly lady standing on the side of the street with the dog and the dog was pointing, like he was fixed on something," said McLean.

"So I looked across the street and there was this bizarre-looking, beautiful bird that I had never seen before."

He snappedseveral photos of the game bird, which hedescribedas "fat" and about "thesize of a football."

"He reminded me of the penguin fromthe Batman movie."

Red-legged partridge or a chukar?

Initially, McLean thought the bird was a red-legged partridge, which is native to France, Spain and northwest Italy.

But two Alberta bird experts who have seen McLean's photographs sayit's more likely a chukar(also known as a chukar partridge),which is the national bird of Iraq and Pakistan.

Calgary birder Gus Yaki saidchukarswere unsuccessfully introduced to Alberta as game birdsin the1920s,but have done"quite well" in theOkanaganValley which stillhas a well established population.

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Chris Fisher, author of Birds of Alberta, said many acreage owners in and around the city keep chukars and other exotic birds.

"This is a bird that should be acknowledged because it actually broke free of its pen, wherever it was located in the Calgary area and is having quite a summer for itself."

With files from the CBC's FaliceChin and the Calgary Eyeopener