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Wildlife Rehabilitator Slang

10,000 Birds

To civilians who may have been puzzled by the wildlife crowd’s tossed-off references to peefas, modos or mice cubes, here is a beginner’s guide to Rehabberspeak. Some abbreviations roll off your tongue and are thus quite helpful – Mourning Doves are MODOs, Peregrine Falcons are PEFAs, Mississippi Kites are MIKIs.

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The Gas Station Bird

10,000 Birds

The bird is just chilling out, waiting for the urge to fly. The bird below is also waiting, but not to fly. One might assume this is a falconry bird, but it’s not. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of birds knows the efficiency and delicacy of their respiratory systems. Now imagine you have the lungs of a bird.

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Peregrine Falcons at the National Wildlife Refuges

10,000 Birds

Peregrine Falcon ( Falco peregrinus ) at Delevan NWR (click on photos for full sized images). I’m sure most of you know that the Peregrine Falcon became an endangered species because of the use of organochlorine pesticides, especially DDT, during the 1950′s, 60′s, and 70′s. Love those talons!

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Wildlife Rehabber Misidentification

10,000 Birds

“Here’s an idea for a blog,” wrote Donna Osburn, a wildlife rehabilitator from Kentucky. What’s your best misidentification of a bird?”. Rehabbers are constantly receiving birds misidentified by their finders; and on occasion some of us even receive birds we misidentify ourselves. This is a great topic.

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Bird vs. Reptile in Key West

10,000 Birds

The snake was wrapped firmly around the hawk’s tail, neck, and wings, and had enough strength to immobilize the bird but not to kill him. Key West Wildlife Center takes mostly birds, but will rescue mammals, marine mammals, and both land and sea turtles as well. It was an immature broad-wing on his first migration,” says Tom.

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Do Not Feed Baby Birds Ham

10,000 Birds

Wildlife rehabilitators are a multi-tasking lot. Not only do we take care of zillions of injured and orphaned birds/mammals/reptiles/whatever, we also have to deal with and educate the public. I mean, how could he know it was a merlin, but not know it didn’t eat bird seed?”. The baffling, mind-boggling public.

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Mikal Deese: Dead Bird Flies Again For Love

10,000 Birds

It was time to try an old falconer’s trick called imping. These can be either molted feathers, or in this case, donor feathers from another bird who had died from her injuries. Since I didn’t have an old falconer on hand, I watched some YouTube videos. I knew imping was possible, but had never actually tried it.