People in Buckinghamshire, England spotted a strange looking orange bird on the side of the road near a busy highway. It looked like some kind of tropical bird or something you’d see in a zoo, so they called for help.
Wildlife rescuers from Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital came out to take a look. They were just as confused as everyone else.
A post on their Facebook said: “This is one of the strangest casualty circumstances we have seen in a while!”
Turns out the bird wasn’t rare at all. It was a regular seagull that had fallen into curry or turmeric and got completely coated in it.
The gull’s feathers were bright orange and he couldn’t fly, probably because of all the spice stuck to him. They said he smelled like Indian food and even gave him a nickname, Vinny, after vindaloo.
They started trying to wash him, but it wasn’t easy. The hospital said Vinny “put up a bit of a fight and covered the veterinary team in curry water.”
After they finally got him cleaned up, his feathers were white again and he looked like a normal gull. He’s recovering and they plan to release him back into the wild once he’s ready.
Believe it or not, this kind of thing has happened before. Back in 2016, another seagull jumped into a tub of chicken tikka masala and needed the same kind of rescue.
At the time, nurse Lucy Kells said: “Hopefully he’ll stick to a much more bland diet in the future!”
So yeah, seagulls don’t really care what they dive into. And apparently, curry makes a mess of everything, including birds.
