An emaciated yellow-nosed albatross, typically found in the Southern Hemisphere, was found in eastern Ontario over the weekend.

The seabird, which makes its home on a string of islands in the mid-Atlantic, had collapsed on a Wolfe Island beach off of Kingston, Ont., unable to stand on its own and had lost about half its body weight of five to six pounds.

Two weeks before that, there were sightings of the albatross with a wing span of three metres over downtown Kingston.

A Wolfe Island summer resident found the bird and contacted the Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre in Napanee, Ont., where it's being cared for by Sue Meech.

"What I'm hearing from naturalists is that it's probably either come here on a storm or its navigational system has been interfered with by maybe some chemical — maybe some pollutant," she said. "Once that happens it becomes a problem because none of its natural food sources are here."

Meech, who believes it's the first albatross ever in captivity in Ontario, is feeding the bird smelts and sardines to help it gain weight.

Meanwhile, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto will test blood samples from the albatross to try to determine where it came from.