How did the scarlet ibis arrive in their backyard?I would like to know how the scarlet ibis arrived at Doodle's house and why?

The beautiful red bird which made a solitary appearance at Doodle's house in James Hurst's short story, "The Scarlet Ibis," had probably flown off-course due to sickness and the storm which followed shortly after. Doodle's family had never seen such a bird before, and after looking it up in "the bird book," it was determined that it was a scarlet ibis--a tropical bird that lived between Florida and South America. (The story is presumably set in North Carolina, Hurst's home state.) "A storm must have brought it here," Doodle's dad decided. Since the bird fell dead from the tree, we can also assume that it was extremely tired and/or sick. Symbolically, of course, the author placed the beautiful, red bird in the story to compare it with the unique Doodle, who later died bloody in the swamp from which the bird had come.