A species of duck that has not been seen in Central Australia for more than 120 years has turned up at the Alice Springs sewage ponds.
The bulky musk duck is often found in Australia's south-east and south-west, but there are no official records of the bird in the Northern Territory.
Mark Carter, a former bird guide and local zoologist, said the duck's arrival had made his birding year.
"In terms of birdwatching, this is like Beyonce and Prince and Elvis have all turned up at once," he said.
Mr Carter received a notification on a birdwatching app that someone had spotted the duck and he assumed it was an error.
"I saw this thing saying, 'Musk duck in Alice Springs', and I thought, 'Yeah right, rubbish — that's got to be a mistake'."
But it wasn't. Mr Carter drove straight to the sewage ponds and was delighted to discover the lone female musk dusk was still there.
How did the duck get to Alice Springs?
Sean Dooley from Birdlife Australia said the musk duck, like many water birds, had likely taken advantage of the boom-and-bust conditions of the outback.
But he said the duck's arrival was all the more remarkable given the species loved deep water — not found in Alice Springs — and generally only flew at night.
"They're quite stubby-winged … they're not known to be great long-distance flyers," Mr Dooley said.
"They look like sort of little grey mini submarines; they're very low in the water."
However, the duck's arrival in the town's sewage ponds is bittersweet.
"It's always tinged with a bit of sadness. A lot of these vagrant birds are quite lost," Mr Dooley said.
"We never know whether they actually ever make it back to their home territory."
19th-century record shrouded in mystery
There are claims a musk duck specimen was shot in the West MacDonnell Ranges of Central Australia in the 1890s.
"We're not quite sure when; it could be as late as about 1894, possibly on one of the Victorian expeditions, but it's all word of mouth," Mr Carter said.
In recent official records, the closest a musk duck has been seen to Alice Springs is still more than 600 kilometres away in western Queensland.
"If they're coming from there, they're having to fly across the Simpson Desert, which is a daunting prospect for even the most accomplished flyers," Mr Dooley said.
