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Posted by John Boyd on 12:46:31 12/20/09
In Reply to: Re: Red-footed Booby- Pelican Harbor (with a disclaimer) posted by Toe
According to the ABA, "RULE 3: The bird must have been alive, wild, and unrestrained when encountered." The key issue is whether the Booby is "wild and unrestrained".
Wild basically means it's here on its own, that neither it or its recent ancestors were transported here by man. This includes birds that follow or ride ships on their own. Note that once a bird is not wild, it cannot become wild by migrating (this is why collared-doves are considered exotic even though they arrived here on their own from their release point in the Bahamas).
So the RF Booby is wild.
As for "unrestrained", there is no 48-hour rule. For diurnal species, the relevant interpretation is "A bird is under the influence of captivity during its initial flight away from its release point and during subsequent activity reasonably influenced by the captivity, such as initial perching and preening or early sleeping or roosting near the release point."
So unless it goes to bed early on the day it's released, it's unrestrained the moment it goes about it's normal business. It sounds like the booby is doing that, so it's "unrestrained".
Sounds to me like it's countable.
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