First posted by Ben Winger on the Birding Michigan Facebook page: "Mary Margaret Ferraro, Aspen Ellis and Janet Hinshaw of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology prepared the recently deceased Michigan Ivory Gull as a research specimen and did a basic necropsy. We learned the bird was a male. There was no sign of trauma or foreign objects like fishing tackle inside (as some had wondered), nor did we see any symptoms of some common avian diseases that can leave obvious signs in a carcass. But the bird was clearly emaciated (its breast muscle was very reduced, a sign of starvation) and it had nothing in its digestive tract except a few small fish bones. So, although he was observed eating fish, he was not absorbing adequate nutrition. We saved various tissues that we will send for toxicological analysis, but that is going to take longer to get results. In summary, the immediate cause of death was most likely starvation, but whether illness or chemicals also played a role awaits further tests. It’s not uncommon for vagrant birds to not be able to sustain themselves, and keep in mind that we have no idea how long the bird was wandering before it was seen in Flint. The study skin, skeleton and many kinds of tissue samples will all be archived in our research collections (one of the largest such collections in North America) for scientists to study in the future. Here are a couple up close views that you don’t get to see every day…look at those amazing feet!"

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BirdingMichigan/permalink/1472851432766190/

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