Nigel, world's loneliest bird, dies next to concrete decoy it loved

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Nigel, a handsome gannet that lived on a desolate island off the coast of New Zealand, died suddenly this week. Wherever its soul has landed, the singles scene surely cannot be worse.

The male bird was lured to Mana Island five years ago by wildlife officials who, in hopes of establishing a gannet colony there, had placed concrete gannet decoys on cliffsides and broadcast the sound of the species' calls. Nigel accepted the invitation, arriving in 2013 as the island's first gannet in 40 years. But none of its brethren joined him.

In the absence of a living love interest, Nigel became enamored with one of the 80 faux birds. It built the decoy a nest. It groomed the decoy's "chilly, concrete feathers ... year after year after year," The Guardian reported.

It died next to the decoy in that unrequited love nest, the vibrant orange-yellow plumage of its head contrasting, as ever, with the weathered, lemony paint of the faux bird beside it.

"Whether or not he was lonely, he certainly never got anything back, and that must have been [a] very strange experience," conservation ranger Chris Bell, who also lives on the island, told the paper. "I think we all have a lot of empathy for him, because he had this fairly hopeless situation."

Perhaps the saddest twist to this tale is that three other gannets settled on Mana just last month, after conservation officials tweaked the sound system used to attract them, according to the New Zealand website Stuff. Nigel paid them no attention.

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