"It's obviously a domesticated bird," [Mike] Taras said. "Somebody was probably raising it and it got loose. The thing can fly and it can run."
Nonetheless, it's a bird and it was seen on the day of the Christmas count.
"That's a more or less legitimate bird," said count organizer Gail Mayo of the Arctic Audubon Society, which, along with the Alaska Bird Observatory, sponsors the Fairbanks count. "I'll certainly turn it in to the state editor and he'll get to hem and haw about it. I'm pretty sure it won't get thrown out."
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.