The case of Strange Bird: how did an African guineafowl end up living wild on a Sydney street?

Guineafowls should live in flocks – and when they find a mate, they couple for life. So how did the solitary bird get to our street in Sydney? Photograph: Warren Little/Getty Images

For two months, we called it Strange Bird.

We had moved into a new home in the summer. A tightly packed street in Sydney’s inner west, where gardens are small, nature strips absent and the cement footpath is broken up by fledgling trees around which residents plant small squares of flowers and creepers. It was here, almost immediately, that we encountered a lone, large bird.