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ManitobaVideo

Rare gyrfalcon stares into camera in Churchill, Man.

A bird that is rarely spotted is being seen by thousands in a video taken in Churchill, Man. and posted to Facebook.

The camera captures the northern lights at night, the falcon during the day

RAW: Rare white falcon caught on camera (courtesy: explore.org)

9 years ago
Duration 0:20
A bird that is rarely spotted is being seen by thousands in a video taken in Churchill, Man.

A bird that is rarely spotted is being seen by thousands in a video taken in Churchill, Man. and posted to Facebook.

Heidi den Haan, assistant director of the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, said the bird is a white gyrfalcon, which is "unique."

"They're not that common to begin with but they hang out here in the wintertime," she said.

On Tuesday, explore.org, a multimedia organization that documents nature around the globe, posted the video to Facebook. Itshows the falcon yawning and subsequently looking straight into the camera.

By Wednesday afternoon the video had registered 4,500 likes and counting.

"It's almost like aphoto bomb," denHaansaid, laughing, adding the camera is set up through explore.org to capture the northern lights.

"It's kind of fun that at night you get the northern lights and during the day you're getting this bird."

According to den Haan, the falcon was there long before the camera, and because birds are territorial it keeps coming back. The height of the tower is another reason it likes to be there, she said.

"There's not a lot of height around Churchill," she said. "The trees are small so any kind of a tower would be preferable for the bird to sit on."