10,000 Birds

MAY 16, 2021

The Philadelphia Metro Wildlife Center in Norristown covers four Pennsylvania counties (including Philadelphia) and takes in over 3000 animals a year. Licensed wildlife rehabilitator and Assistant Director Michele Wellard relayed this story: In the spring a few years back, a man cut down a tree on his property outside Philadelphia.

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Wildlife Philadelphia Wildlife Rehabilitation Woodpeckers 262

10,000 Birds

JUNE 1, 2012

This story comes from Lisa Kelly, a wildlife rehabilitator in Tarrytown, New York, by way of Maggie Ciarcia, a rehabber in the nearby town of Somers. We both have binoculars, and we’re watching a great big black bird. I do hope you can come and help this poor bird. It’s a very large bird – are you strong, my dear?

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Rescue Bird Rescue Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds 183

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 17, 2014

Normally wildlife rehabilitators try not to give these kinds of directions. Put the baby birds in the nest. She had given the above directions to a person who had found two nestling Northern Mockingbirds in need of immediate rescue. So we say things like this: “Get a small box.

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Transported Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds Wildlife 220

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 30, 2015

Nadeem Shehzad and his brother Mohammad Saud take in about 1400 injured birds per year in Delhi, India – an enormous number. Through the internet, they have forged bonds with other wildlife rehabililators throughout the world. Conservation India wildlife rehabilitators' What’s left? “I

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Wildlife Rehabilitation India New Jersey Campaign 176

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

Look in the middle, just over the trees: there’s a big flock of birds up there. Such is the sad truth of die-hard wildlife rehabilitators, who can’t even go on a simple bike ride without feeling compelled to rescue birds who either don’t exist or turn out to be perfectly healthy. Maybe one of them is hurt!”

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds Wounded Abandon 176

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2015

My work as a wildlife rehabilitator over the past forty-five years has allowed me a unique perspective on a disturbing trend. But the fact is nature has little to do with most problems facing native birds. To that person, the bird in trouble is real and not an anonymous blob of feathers. The difference seems obvious.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Bald Eagle Rescue Wildlife 189

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 13, 2015

The campaign to provide one of two brothers who almost singlehandedly care for the injured birds of Delhi, India, has been extended. Do you love birds? Because Nadeem and Mohammad Saud also rescue cobras from snake charmers. They have compassion for all creatures, and need your help to keep up their wildlife rescue work.

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Wildlife Wildlife Rehabilitation Campaign Compassion 172

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2016

By the time August rolls around, wildlife rehabilitators are fried. There have been months of late-night phone calls, hordes of orphans, and lots of less-than-satisfying encounters with the public, who, shall we say, don’t always have the best interests of wildlife at heart.

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Wildlife Wildlife Rehabilitation Rescue Cats 132

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2014

Sentient people recoil at the idea of leg-hold traps, those medieval–torture devices which cause so much pain and suffering before their victims eventually die, are killed, or (very occasionally) are rescued. My very first rescue was a House Sparrow caught in a glue trap,” says Donna Osburn, a wildlife rehabilitator in Kentucky.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Mice Rodents Rescue 279

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 31, 2014

This one comes from Vonda Lee Morton, a wildlife rehabilitator who runs Laurens Wildlife Rescue outside Atlanta. She and I have never met in person, but thanks to the internet we’ve been through all kinds of wildlife emergencies together. Birds Conservation Great Blue Heron turkey vulture wildlife rehabilitators'

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Wildlife Wildlife Rehabilitation Atlanta Turkey 192

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2013

She had wanted one for a long time, but I was convinced I would end up taking care of it, plus there were carnivorous birds in my house. But Skye wore me down, and in her junior year of high school we went to the local Rabbit Rescue. I asked the rescue lady, pulling her aside. How long do rabbits live?” Ohhh, Merlin!”

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Rabbits Wildlife Rehabilitation Rabbit Rescue Rescue 239

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

When the wolf is at the door, a wildlife rehabilitator will let him in. Jodi Swenson is a bird rehabber in Gloucester, MA. When my bird rehabbing memoir came out in 2009, HarperCollins sent me on a New England book tour. Jodi, who I’d never met, didn’t have any education birds, but showed up anyway. And feed him.

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Rescue Wildlife Rehabilitation Homelessness Wildlife 175

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

“I’ve seen her around, when I was setting my traps,” said the trapper himself, who brought her to Tamarack Wildlife Center , in Saegertown, PA. This is why certain wildlife rehabilitators end up misanthropic and homicidal. She is a medicine bird. Just the other day I was saying that I hope I never catch her.”.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Wildlife Birds Delaware 200

10,000 Birds

APRIL 25, 2014

“We had a call one morning about a snake and a hawk,” says Tom Sweets, the executive director and chief rescuer of the Key West Wildlife Center , located at the very tip of Florida. 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.

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Reptiles Chickens Sea Turtles Wildlife Rehabilitation 211

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2014

“Okay, fellow songbird rehabbers,” wrote Vonda Lee Morton of Laurens Wildlife Rescue on her FaceBook page. “Is Sometimes bird rehabbers who end up with tiny, semi-feathered little mystery birds end up playing a game called “Name That Bird.”. Hence: Name That Bird. Is this a Song Sparrow ?

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds Georgia Kentucky 229

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

This guest blog was written by Debbie Souza-Pappas, the director and founder of Second Chance Wildlife Rehabilitation in Price, Utah. It seemed whoever set the trap had ‘released’ the injured eagle upon finding him, as the bird could not have freed himself without the loss of the entire foot. This was going to be a tough case.

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Eagles Wildlife Rehabilitation Utah Vet 152

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2014

“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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Wildlife Wildlife Rehabilitation Falcons Pit Bulls 253

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Today’s post is written by Monte Merrick, wildlife rehabilitator and co-director of the Humboldt Wildlife Care Center/bird ally x in Arcata, CA. Less than 2000 grams – more sail, it seems, than bird. The species name is long enough to be the middle line of a formal English haiku.

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10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 24, 2014

So I asked seven wildlife rehabilitators, “Tell me your favorite (or one of your favorites) release story – the kind that makes you keep going, in spite of everything.”. “A Sophie had serious doubts about whether she was really a bird. Sophie the Scissortail was the most difficult but the most satisfying bird of the season.”.

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10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

This blog was written by Sherry Turner Teas, a rehabber in Chattanooga, Tennessee: It started out as a normal day for a wildlife rehabilitator here in Tennessee – giving medicine, cleaning cages, and feeding baby birds. I put her in a cage, gave her Metacam for pain, and administered herbal Rescue Remedy to calm her down.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Tennessee Raised Wildlife 161

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2012

Of all the billions of things that keep wildlife rehabilitators from sleeping at night, public releases are one of the big ones. Ideally, we like to release birds where they came from (as long as it’s not a dangerous area), and with as little fanfare as possible. Bird people understand this.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Rescue Killing 2012 165

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2016

Injured wildlife are not the most cooperative of patients. Wildlife rehabilitators have an arsenal of equipment and techniques we use to protect ourselves. I was working at the Coastal Wildlife Rescue Center here in Alabama, and he had either been blown in during a storm or caught a ride on a ship.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Wounded Wildlife Opossums 172

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2015

You (or your child/friend/etc) have just found a seemingly parentless baby bird. Here with the answer(s) is Maureen Eiger, a bird rehabilitator in Roanoke, VA: . Wild bird rehabilitators want bird parents to feed their own babies. Putting a baby bird back in its nest is not always the right thing to do.

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Wounded Rescue Medical Cats 256

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2011

If we can all agree on one thing, it’s that chickadees and tits are terrific birds. Not for nothing did 10,000 Birds readers elect the chickadee as the Most Beloved Backyard Bird of 2008 ; if we had run elections in other years, chickadees would no doubt have been front-runners. It was still alive.

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Seattle Wildlife Rehabilitation Rescue Dogs 219

10,000 Birds

JULY 26, 2013

She is a lifelong champion of all birds, and a hero and inspiration to me. We are off to rescue a Bald Eagle, kiddo!” Even as a veteran wildlife rehabilitator, I could scarcely believe the sight before me. But in birds they eat living tissue, and once they are internal will kill the patient. in Antigo, WI.

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Eagles Wounded Bald Eagle Wisconsin 243

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2016

That awful sound of a bird hitting a window. She was spotted and rescued by Michelle Basignani, who put her in a box in her car and called her friend Daniel Cronk. Daniel called his brother, Dylan, who called his friend Skye Horgan, whose mother is a wild bird rehabilitator (me). What comes next? It takes a village.

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Rescue Transported Family Wildlife 115

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2016

All her pets are rescues. She doesn’t use pesticides, she loves the local wildlife, and she does everything a good pet owner should do. Since I am a wild bird rehabilitator and have seen, up close, the damage a cat can do to a bird, let me address the owner of the “hummingbird murderer.”.

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Cats Rabbits Chipmunks Pets 172

10,000 Birds

JUNE 29, 2012

Here is an x-ray of a bird,” I say. It’s a really big bird. Why do you wildlife rehabilitators waste your time saving a cardinal with a broken wing, when you could be giving your money to save habitat? Wildlife rehabilitators should not have to defend what they do. The kids can’t get enough of this stuff.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Wildlife Rescue Emotional 257

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2015

“It is next to impossible to persuade people in India to donate money for injured raptors,” says Nadeem Shehzad, co-founder of Wildlife Rescue , a registered non-profit in the Chawri Bazar area of Old Delhi. The first injured bird Nadeem and Mohammad ever found was a Black Kite.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation India Rescue Wounded 263

10,000 Birds

JULY 27, 2012

I’m not a big fan of bird banding. When I see a band I imagine something slipping beneath it and trapping the bird, I’ve seen photos of birds with so many bands it looks like they’re wearing stockings, and then there’s the awful story of Violet , whose band eventually killed her. to find out her actual age. Should they keep her?

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Rabbits New Jersey Neglecting North America 244

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2020

Faithful 10,000 Birds readers will remember Suzie as our wildlife rehabilitation beat writer. Suzie wrote about her experiences as a bird rehabber in Flyaway: How A Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings (2009) and used those experiences as the source for her fictional children’s book, Hawk Hill (1996).

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Bald Eagle Eagles Wildlife 263

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2012

This story comes from Lia Pignatelli, a rehabber with AKUSA Wildlife Rescue in Brewster, NY, who specializes in songbirds. It was six o’clock one June morning, and Lia arrived in her bird nursery room for the first feeding of the day. All eyes turned to Lia, and the begging began. Was this his real family?

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10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 5, 2014

“OOOOOOOklahoma where the birds come sweepin’ down the plain…” I know – it’s supposed to be the wind, not the birds. I recently traveled to Oklahoma to help spread the word of wildlife, finding all kinds of adventure along the way. Tulsa area wildlife rehabilitators are awesome.

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Tulsa Wildlife Rehabilitation Oklahoma Wildlife 187

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2016

Years ago, I became a wildlife volunteer and advocate because of a cat who caught a bird. It was Los Angeles, after all, where mileage has no bearing on time, but where time was precious for my little rescue on this crystal morning. Back then, I didn’t know enough about birds, but I knew a lot about cats. I was mortified.

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Cats Stray Cat Stray Wildlife Rehabilitation 216

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 5, 2012

On August 21st, Maryjane Angelo of Skye’s Spirit Wildlife Rehabilitation in Pennsylvania received a call from a man who said his nephew was standing in the middle of a rural road, guarding a Bald Eagle. The bird usually turns out to be a hawk, vulture, exotic chicken, or sometimes a pigeon. Will he be okay?” Please help!

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Bald Eagle Wildlife Rehabilitation Pennsylvania Eagles 250

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2012

This story comes from Emily Johnson, who is a sub-permittee for a licensed wildlife rehabilitator in Helena, Montana. Not all injured birds end up winging their way back home again, which is the sad but true part of wild bird rehabilitating. Such was the case with Russell A.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Montana Compassion Rescue 199

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 9, 2015

As a result of human interference, four Chimney Swift nestlings had to be rescued. Starving and dehydrated, they were taken into care by Dr. Helene von Doninck of Cobequid Wildlife Centre . Pilots ‘n Paws Canada stepped up to the plate and volunteered to fly the little birds to Quebec.

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