Alien Head X-Ray Up for Bids (photos)

Alien Head X-Ray Up for Bids

On eBay, shoppers can find anything from the mundane and everyday household items to unique antiques and one-of-a-kind treasures. So how about an X-ray of an alien head inside of a duck?

A Northern California non-profit animal rescue group hopes the bizarre find in the belly of an unfortunate fowl could help it land a major payday now that the oddity is set to go up for bids on the online auction site next week.

The strange discovery started last Sunday when a mallard was dropped off at the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia with a broken wing. But when the center's assistant manager Marie Travers radiographed the bird, the x-ray came back with more than just broken bones.

....

"I saw a face. The stereotypical alien head ... with big eyes," Travers said.

And Travers wasn't the only one who saw the large bulbous eye sockets and odd alien grimace on the head clearly seen tucked away in the duck's stomach.

"It clearly stood out," said center director Jay Holcomb. "We were looking at the broken wing, but the face is all we could look at."

Most assumed the bird may have inadvertantly eaten a toy alien or gobbled up something that closely resembled an otherworldly visitor. But after the duck succumbed to his injuries, a necropsy turned up even more surprises in the mallard's innards.

"Just corn, corn and grit," Travers said.

"No alien heads," Holcomb added.

While the investigation turned up no evidence of extraterrestrial intervention, Holcomb hopes the undeniably odd x-ray could help raise the center some cash from an online curiousity connoisseur.

"The poor bird didn't make it, but if we can raise money to take care of other birds, that's great," Holcomb said.

The auction is scheduled to begin Sunday at 3 p.m. and last for one week.

And Holcomb said around Cordelia, a place where unusual crop circles back in 2003 were just one example of the area's proclivity for the otherworldly, the alien head may be more than just a x-ray anomoly.

"Cordelia's a hot bed of alien activity," Holcomb explained. "We've seen the crop circles, so it stands to reason we'd see an alien face staring out of a duck."