A RARE bird found dying on the Aran Islands has been nursed back to health by Co Galway artist Padraic Reaney.
The bittern, known for its distinctive booming call, was recovered on the shore at Kilronan, Inis Mór, earlier this month.
Mr Reaney said it was "skin and bone" with some damage to its leg, but is now "running around the aviary".
Mr Reaney keeps hawks and falcons and has a reputation for nursing injured birds.
"This is extremely rare, as breeding bitterns are not found here any more, due to habitat change."
The yellow bittern, which inspired the Irish poem An Bonnán Buí by Cathal MacGhiolla Ghunna in the early 18th century, has not bred in Ireland since the 1840s.
However, four sightings of the bird have been recorded around Lough Corrib in the past 10 years.
"Single birds among the species only tend to come to Ireland now when driven here by extreme weather in Europe," said Mr Reaney. "As we didn't have quite that weather pattern this past winter, it is a mystery as to why the bird is here."
Wildlife expert and artist Gordon D'Arcy has recorded it in his recent publication, Ireland's Lost Birds, and had noted how the "dismal hollow boom" emitted by males of the species captured the imagination of poets like Chaucer, Dryden, Wordsworth and Ledwidge.
Mr Reaney intends to release his patient this week, and says he will choose a wetland area as the preferred habitat for the bird.