10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 23, 2015

This week’s guest blog was written by Linda Hufford, who has been a wildlife rehabilitator specializing in raptors for over twenty years. She runs Birds of Texas Rehabilitation Center in Austin County, Texas. As a wildlife rehabilitator, I’ve used many of their gathered facts to improve my bird care.

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Collecting Wildlife Rehabilitation Solomon Islands Texas 240

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2016

I asked a group of wildlife rehabilitators: “What are some of the Worst Bird Myths? An injured or orphaned bird must be taken to a wildlife rehabilitator as soon as humanly possible, or they will have little chance of surviving. If you see an owl,” wrote Mikal Deese, “someone in your family is going to die.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Porcupines Raccoons Birds 178

10,000 Birds

MAY 31, 2013

Xena is a Eurasian Eagle Owl. She lives with her handler, wildlife rehabilitator Lisa Acton, in upstate New York. Lisa takes her to schools, fairs, and events, and together they show people why they should respect and admire the wildlife who live around them. Birds Eurasian Eagle Owl wildlife rehabilitator'

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Raised Eagles Owls 166

10,000 Birds

JUNE 28, 2013

A wildlife rehabilitator friend, newly licensed, recently called to ask if he could feed a recovering Turkey Vulture anything besides defrosted rodents. Normally I feed vultures, as well as hawks and owls, defrosted mice and rats. He then ate a screech owl, a robin, two squirrels, a mourning dove, three chipmunks, and a rabbit.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Rodents Mice Rats 194

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. Consider this: ninety percent of birds treated at wildlife centers are admitted as a result of human interactions that have nothing to do with “nature.”

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Bald Eagle Rescue Wildlife 189

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2013

Wildlife rehabilitators are not known for our bling. People who work with wildlife wearing nice clothes? People who work with wildlife wearing nice clothes? Wildlife rehab can be so metaphorical. I had an evil-tempered Great Horned Owl - is there any other kind? As for nice clothing … right!

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Bald Eagle Wildlife Rehabilitation Vet Birds 221

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2014

My very first rescue was a House Sparrow caught in a glue trap,” says Donna Osburn, a wildlife rehabilitator in Kentucky. It’s not limited to small birds, either. “We once took in a Barred Owl stuck to an 11″ x 14″ sheet,” she adds. They’d baited the trap with seed and a bit of cake!

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Mice Rodents Rescue 279

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

They rocketed past us, letting out that clamoring alarm call which made me pray they hadn’t found a young, hapless Red-tailed Hawk or a sleeping Barred Owl. Birds crows wildlife rehabilitators' Maybe one of them is hurt!” I said, abandoning my bike and bushwhacking toward them.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds Wounded Abandon 172

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

When using a regular hospital cage, the wildlife rehabilitator reaches in, picks up the bird, transfers him to another cage, cleans the original one, then returns the bird. Birds wild bird caging wild bird hospital wildlife rehabilitators' Thanks, Dad! I hope others can benefit, too.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Colorado Protest Protesting 251

10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2015

Wildlife rehabilitators are a multi-tasking lot. We had a Barred Owl they were feeding Doritos.”. “We We have a resident Eastern Screech Owl who was fed dry oats for ten days BY A VETERINARIAN!” A nestling Eastern Screech Owl they fed nothing but fish,” wrote Eileen Hagerman. The baffling, mind-boggling public.

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Squirrels Hamburgers Chickens Wildlife Rehabilitation 250

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2016

I reacted that way because I’m a wildlife rehabilitator. I’m used to entering a songbird flight filled with young Blue Jays and having one of them bang into the side of my head by mistake, or entering a raptor flight and having a Great Horned Owl deliberately try to scalp me. “What are you doing, you bad birds?”.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds Wildlife Owls 105

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.

Wildlife Rehabilitation 166

Wildlife Rehabilitation Wounded Wildlife Opossums 166

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

When the wolf is at the door, a wildlife rehabilitator will let him in. Her fine china repair business pays her bills, but her budget is often strained past the breaking point by the 250-300 birds she takes in per year – such as this Eastern Screech Owl , who is recovering after being hit by a car. And feed him.

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Rescue Wildlife Rehabilitation Homelessness Wildlife 169

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2016

Wildlife lovers and rehabilitators, as always, tried to intervene. “I I have been caring for raptors for almost 29 years and not even a Bald Eagle can carry off 12 pounds,” wrote Eileen Wicker, the Executive Director of Raptor Rehabilitation of Kentucky. “I had no idea!” “How That’s why we need more trapping.” “I’m

Pets 240

Pets Barn Owls Kentucky Bald Eagle 240

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2016

This guest blog was written by Mikal Deese, Wildlife Educator, Rehabilitator, and founder of On A Wing And A Prayer in Corrales, New Mexico. He visited her every night, sitting on top of her enclosure so they could sing owl-ey duets. With the help of a trusted owl-holding friend (essential!)

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New Mexico Wounded Owls Mexico 132

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. Watch this remarkable video about Wildlife Rescue, and read their blog. It is our duty to save them.”.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation India Rescue Wounded 262

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2019

H is for Hawk was a hit for Helen Macdonald a few years back; and Wesley the Owl by Stacey O’Brien, The Parrot Who Owns Me by Joanna Burger; and Alex & Me by Irene Pepperberg are, each of them, delightful books as well. And there may be, probably are, men affected with this sort of thing, too, not just women.

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Ohio Adoptable Emotional 2019 140

10,000 Birds

JULY 31, 2015

This post is from Lisa Beth Acton, a wildlife rehabilitator in Accord, NY. She has a captive-bred education bird named Xena, a Eurasian Eagle Owl. Lisa brings her to all kinds of gatherings to spread the word of wildlife (see Xena’s Facebook page ). This summer Lisa raised three orphaned Common Ravens.

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Raised Mice Wildlife Rehabilitation Squirrels 232

10,000 Birds

MARCH 22, 2013

What is the number one cause of wildlife rehablilitator burnout? She stopped the car, got out, looked at the front of her Hyundai SUV, and found a live Barred Owl stuck in the grill. She left the stunned but struggling owl where it was, got back on the highway, and drove 40 minutes home. The public. Luckily, the pendulum swings.

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New York City Owls Rescue Wildlife 228