A Laysan Albatross returns to sea

This Laysan Albatross was recently evaluated and released by International Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles wildlife care center team. Photos by Paul Berry. “Big birds in big oceans, albatrosses lead big, sprawling lives across space and time, traveling to the limits of seemingly limitless seas,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carl Safina wrote in the 2002 classic Eye of … Read more

Winter patients at our Los Angeles wildlife care center

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

Encore: Pelican Release, Dec. 1 at Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve

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

Friday Rounds: Sharp-shinned Hawk

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

Remembering New Zealand’s Rena Oil Spill, 1 Year Later

                                                                       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

5 Minutes with “Winged Planet” Director John Downer

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