An oiled Common Murre up for a wash. Photos and video by Bill Steinkamp, all rights reserved. On a recent afternoon, a team of staff and volunteers at International Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles wildlife care center had their hands full with oiled Common Murres and Western Grebes in need of a wash. Over the past … Read more
The hard-working staff at International Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles center are very busy with many interesting species in need of our care (click here for the latest bird count). On a recent visit to the center, located in San Pedro, volunteer photographer Bill Steinkamp took these great photographs of just some of our current patients. … Read more
White Pelican release, all images by Mike Stensvold © 2012 Mike Stensvold sent us these fantastic shots of Saturday’s White Pelican release at Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve. Boy Scouts from Troop #1149 of the Orange County Council were also on hand to help give these magnificent animals a send-off back into the wild! © 2012 … Read more
This Sharp-shinned Hawk, the smallest of hawk species in North America, came to us from Pasadena Humane Society contaminated with glue trap material on its flight feathers and ventral side of the body, according to Marianne Dominguez, a rehabilitation technician at our Los Angeles care center. Dominguez, shown here washing the bird, reports: “Because the … Read more
A Pacific Loon treated at International Bird Rescue’s San Francisco Bay Area center. Photo by Jeff Robinson. It may be hard to believe, but we have actually had injured birds come to us, like a gull that once landed on the roof of our Los Angeles center impaled by a gigantic, three-pronged fishing lure. But … Read more
Jeff Robinson with a curious Crimson Rosella Where would we be without our volunteers? The answer wouldn’t be a pretty one. Every day, we depend on many supporters who fold laundry, wash dishes, handle birds and feed the flocks. And they also help us to document our work so that we can show it to … Read more
Little Blue Penguin in the Rena Spill, photo by Curt Clumpner By Barbara Callahan, International Bird Rescue In the early morning hours of October 5, 2011, the MV Rena, a large cargo ship carrying 1,368 containers, struck a reef in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, spilling several hundred metric tons of heavy fuel and … Read more
Barnacle Geese over Tantallon Castle, Scotland. Photo courtesy Discovery Channel. With campaign season cacophony in full gear on the airwaves, we’re looking forward to a bit of wildlife respite this weekend with the Saturday premiere of Winged Planet, an innovative documentary on the lives of birds around the world. A co-production of the BBC … Read more
A Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) is a beautiful, large shorebird in the Curlew genus that weighs about as much as a tall cup of coffee at Starbucks. Its most notable feature is a slender bill that, as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology notes, “nicely matches the shape of fiddler crab burrows. The bird reaches into the … Read more
What’s a “COMU?” In bird lingo, it’s a Common Murre, and we see a lot of them at our centers. Howard Freshman, one of our wonderful volunteer photographers, recently took these photos of an oiled Common Murre transferred to our Los Angeles center last week from Pacific Wildlife Care in Morro Bay. Here, Rehabilitation Technician … Read more