Rare bird sets up housekeeping in Calif.

SAN DIEGO, April 15 (UPI) -- A bird named for Amelia Earhart has hatched at least six chicks at a nature center near San Diego after a 160-mile trip from another county, officials say.

Amelia the light-footed clapper rail returned to the Chula Vista Nature Center late last year from a lagoon in Ventura County, 160 miles to the north, The San Diego Union Tribune reported Thursday.

Clapper rails are not considered strong flyers and the bird's return to Chula Vista made her something of a celebrity in the wildlife research community.

Amelia quickly joined up with a male bird named Putnam, after the aviatrix's publisher and husband George Putnam, and laid eight eggs, successfully hatching six of them.

"We don't always have such great success as quickly with new pairs," Charles Gailband, conservation director at the nature center, said. "She is going to be with us for a long time. She has proved her worth."

Brown with long orange beaks, clapper rails stand about 14 inches tall and were once common along Southern California's coastline.

Their numbers fell as marshes up and down the coast gave way to development and the species was listed as endangered in 1970.

Amelia is part of a long-term project at the nature center to repopulate the birds across Southern California, Gailband said.