Nigel the gannet died as he lived, alone on the cliffs of Mana Island, surrounded by fake birds.

The bird was lured to the desolate island off New Zealand five years ago by wildlife officials who, in hopes of establishing a gannet colony there, had placed concrete gannet decoys on cliffsides and broadcast the sound of the species' calls. Nigel accepted the invitation, arriving in 2013 as the island's first gannet in 40 years. But none of his brethren joined him.

Nigel, right, built a nest out of sticks and mud for his concrete friend.

In the absence of a living love interest, Nigel became enamoured with one of the 80 faux birds. He built her - it? - a nest. He groomed her "chilly, concrete feathers ... year after year after year," the Guardian reported. He died next to her in that unrequited love nest, the vibrant orange-yellow plumage of his head contrasting, as ever, with the weathered, lemony paint of hers.

"Whether or not he was lonely, he certainly never got anything back, and that must have been [a] very strange experience," conservation ranger Chris Bell, who also lives on the island, told the paper. "I think we all have a lot of empathy for him, because he had this fairly hopeless situation."