Rare Asian bird takes 'wrong turn,' lands in Tennessee

A rare Asian hooded crane, normally seen only in Southeast Asia, China and Japan, apparently "took a wrong turn" and has joined sandhill cranes wintering at the Hiwassee Refuge in southeast Tennessee, bird experts say, drawing flocks of curious birdwatchers along with it. "It's a great thrill," said Melinda Welton, conservation chair for the Tennessee Ornithological Society and a bird migration researcher. "People are coming in from all over the country to see this bird." The TWRA said in a release that more than 8,000 of the hooded cranes - approximately 80 percent of the world's population of the species - winter on the Japanese island of Kyushu. (Reuters)