KINGSTON, Ont. - A yellow-nose albatross, the first of the species ever found in Ontario, is convalescing at Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre in Napanee.

The large seabird was found barely alive on Wolfe Island in eastern Ontario on Saturday, emaciated and anemic on the shore of Brown’s Bay.

A summer resident on the island came across the bird, and it was transported to the wildlife centre.

According to the centre’s director, Sue Meech, an albatross of this maturity would usually weigh six to seven pounds. The one that arrived at her facility Saturday weighed just three.

“Any time you can pick a bird up like this off the ground, usually it’s very bad news because the bird has to be pretty sick before that can happen,” Meech said.

The yellow-nosed albatross is usually found only in the southern hemisphere, travelling around the Atlantic Ocean between South America and Africa.

The bird only comes ashore to nest, and this particular species usually does so among the Tristan da Cunha group of islands, located in the southern Atlantic Ocean.

As to how the bird came to be in Canada, Meech was told by a naturalist she consulted that whatever is ailing the albatross may have caused its navigation system to go awry.

“We don’t know what caused the problem,” Meech said.

“The problem is obviously not a new one, there was no trauma. We’re going to be looking for the basic problem, but first of all we have to save its life.”

The bird is being tube-fed easily digestible food.

Meech said she has seen a slight improvement in its health. When it first arrived, the bird could barely stand.

“What you have to do when you’re looking after these birds is go slow,” she said.

“The bird is in a poor, emaciated condition and he’s dehydrated, and if we start filling him with good food we could kill him.”

As the bird’s health progresses, fish will be added to its diet. Its normal diet also includes squid and krill.

Meech isn’t sure how long it will be until the bird is ready to be set free.

“Everything I’ve read about them says to get them up to scratch and get them out there quickly because they’re very, very high stress birds because they don’t usually see people,” she said.

To make its stay less traumatic, the bird is off-limits to visitors.

“Every birder wants to check this off their lifetime list,” she said.

The centre’s unique visitor has drawn attention from many, including the Royal Ontario Museum.

“We’re taking blood for DNA testing (for them), so we can see where it came from,” Meech said.

Meech said she was surprised Saturday when the bird she was asked to rescue turned out to be an albatross.

“I get a lot of mistakes made here — people saying they’re bringing me a hawk, but it’s a pigeon — so I never believe what I’m told until I see it,” she said.

“I thought I was going to get a big, black-backed gull.”

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Albatross facts:

• The albatross has the largest wingspan of any living bird, between 1.9 and 3.3 metres. A wandering albatross was once measured to have a wingspan of 3.4 metres.

• Because of its wingspan, the bird can glide for hours without flapping its wings, and reportedly sometimes sleeps while flying.

• According to National Geographic, the albatross can weigh up to 10 pounds and live to the age of 50.

• The albatross has come to symbolize an encumbrance, courtesy of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous 141-verse poem, Rime of the Ancient Mariner.