Animal crossing: Australia to kill US bird that made 13,000km trip to Melbourne

The racing pigeon has come afoul of Australia’s notoriously strict biosecurity laws after deviating way off its course

Experts suspect the bird – which has been dubbed Joe, after the US president-elect – hitched a ride on a cargo ship to cross the Pacific Ocean

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The bird disappeared from a race in the US state of Oregon on October 29. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:41pm, 14 Jan 2021Updated: 9:51pm, 14 Jan 2021

A racing pigeon has survived an extraordinary 13,000km Pacific Ocean crossing from the United States to reach Australia. Now authorities consider the bird a quarantine risk and plan to kill it.

Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird on Thursday said he discovered that the exhausted bird that arrived in his backyard on December 26 had disappeared from a race in the US state of Oregon on October 29.

Experts suspect the pigeon – which Celli-Bird has named Joe, after the US president-elect – hitched a ride on a cargo ship to cross the Pacific.

“It rocked up at our place on Boxing Day,” said Celli-Bird, who lives in the Melbourne suburb of Officer.

“I’ve got a fountain in the backyard and it was having a drink and a wash,” he said. “He was pretty emaciated, so I crushed up a dry biscuit and left it out there for him.”

“Next day, he rocked back up at our water feature. So I wandered out to have a look at him, because he was fairly weak and he didn’t seem that afraid of me, and I saw he had a blue band on his leg,” he added. “Obviously he belongs to someone, so I managed to catch him.”

Racing pigeons seen in Belgium. File photo: AP

Joe’s feat has attracted the attention of the Australian media, but also of the notoriously strict Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service.