Researchers are analysing a unique scenario in which the nesting site of one of the island’s threatened birds was discovered beside a street in Hamilton.

Patrick Talbot, a curator at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo, told The Royal Gazette that he heard of the nest last year from an area resident.

He said longtails may have nested there for years, adding: “It could be a long time and no one would have noticed it.”

The Bermuda Zoological Society, BAMZ and the Atlantic Conservation Partnership are collaboratively monitoring the city nest.

Also known as the white-tailed tropicbird, the longtail is an open-ocean species.

It only comes to land to breed, laying its single egg in holes and crevices eroded from the soft limestone of Bermuda’s coastal cliffs.

This week, Mr Talbot led a team including Barbara Outerbridge, animal registrar at BAMZ, to the nest to assess an adult longtail with a chick that hatched several days earlier.

Mr Talbot said the adult would have returned to the site earlier this week, with the parent typically staying at the nest for four to five days.

He added: “This parent may not sit here the next four days; it may come and go.”

The chick is approximately five days old.

Mr Talbot and his team collected both birds from the nest for examination.

The researcher marked the adult with ink, which he said would last about a week.

A unique Bermudian-branded band was placed on one of its feet, which, Mr Talbot said, will remain for the bird’s lifetime.

The adult weighed 339 grams while its bill was 56 millimetres. Its right wing measured 283mm and the left was 282mm.

Only the weight of the chick — 49g — was recorded.

Mr Talbot also tested the adult’s blood to determine its sex, although the results will not be ready until the year’s end.

By next year, when the bird returns, he will know its sex when checking the band.

Mr Talbot said that an egg was produced last year but the nest failed, potentially because of its unsuitable location.

The researcher said: “My concern for this nest is the chick.

“When the chick has fully fledged, when it has grown all its flight feathers and is ready to leave the nest, what it should be seeing is ocean.

“When they depart from the nest, they should be hopping into water.”

With the closest water half a mile away, Mr Talbot was concerned that it would fail again.

“But the parents wouldn’t know because when the chick is fully fledged it signals to the parent that it’s ready to go and the parents abandon it. They wouldn’t know what happened to the chick.”

Mr Talbot plans to monitor the chick until it is almost fully fledged and then band it.

He said: “If found stranded in the City, then we will know where it came from.”

He said whether successful or not, the birds would need to be monitored to determine their success rate and “ideally be discouraged from nesting in such an ill-suited location”.

He explained: “Some people may say to let nature take its course, but we do have some responsibility to ensure their success due to human effects to the Bermuda environment.”

He noted that longtails enjoy protection under the Protection of Birds Act 1975, making it illegal to handle or harass them.

“If they prove they can successfully nest in the ‘big city’, then maybe allowing them to do so may not be such a bad thing.”

Mr Talbot and Ms Outerbridge remain mystified by the City location of the nest.

Mr Talbot added: “What would prompt these birds to navigate through a city to search for a home?”

Ms Outerbridge said:“ It’s not like their preferred house — they would want to be closer to the water.”

Mr Talbot plans to continue checking on the nest to document the bird’s time on land.

He is studying longtail breeding habits through surveys and tagging of the seabirds.

The tags work in tandem with a wildlife tracking station on Trunk Island, transmitting data on the animal’s location as well as information about its environment.

In March, the BZS said it was partnering with the Atlantic Conservation Partnership to find out more about the protected species, specifically “to answer questions on gender roles when it comes to egg incubation and chick-rearing”.

Mr Talbot hopes to determine a timeline of when the birds arrive on the island and their route inland.

He is also trying to find out how close to Bermuda the birds hunt during breeding, and whether their breeding pairs are monogamous.