Stowaway bird nest pulled from plane

Stowaway bird nest pulled from plane

Auckland biosecurity staff have pulled a bird nest, complete with eggs, from the wheel housing of a jet aircraft from the United States.

The Boeing 737 arrived in Auckland last week from Arizona to be dismantled. The plane was originally a Russian aircraft, but had been stored in the Mojave Desert.

Ministry for Primary Industries Team Leader Steve Gay says a quarantine inspector found the nest among other debris after an alert from engineers working on the plane.

“The engineers did the right thing. The materials had potential to carry plant and avian diseases that could have threatened our wildlife and primary industries.”

The nest, made from mud, feathers and straw, contained four eggs. Two of these had hatched. The other two were whole eggs. The bird species has not been identified.

Mr Gay says quarantine inspectors will be checking the plane regularly for further biosecurity risk material. It will take about six weeks for it to be dismantled and cut up for scrap.

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