With the arrival of the year’s first ducklings, baby bird season is upon us again, and we need your help. Landscaped yards, road medians and industrial landscaping have replaced many natural nesting areas for waterfowl. After their eggs hatch, ducks and geese walk their young to the water facing man-made obstacles such as storm drains, … Read more
Photos by Cheryl Reynolds Over the past week, both International Bird Rescue’s wildlife centers in California received orphaned baby birds. Our Los Angeles center is caring for four orphaned ducklings, while our San Francisco Bay center has Canada goslings, Mallard ducklings and a Green Heron, shown above being fed via puppet surrogate. This patient was … Read more
Photo by Isabel Luevano Our first orphaned baby bird of the year has arrived. (Update: And we now have this bird on our live BirdCam.) Among the patients in care at our San Francisco Bay center is this Canada Gosling, found injured at Heather Farm Park in Walnut Creek, CA and transferred to us from … Read more
Photo by Cheryl Reynolds New arrivals at our San Francisco Bay center: these gull chicks, shown above at feeding time via puppet feeder. The feather duster shown below acts as a surrogate parent. Photo by Michelle Bellizzi Photos by Cheryl Reynolds
A very Happy Fourth of July to all our bird blog readers! As you get ready for BBQs and fireworks displays today, we wanted to share a heartwarming story from our Los Angeles wildlife care center team: Photo by Jennifer Gummerman This mother duck arrived on Monday at our L.A. center with her 10 … Read more
Photos by Bill Steinkamp As one of our Facebook fans recently put it, “You wouldn’t think such a plain adult would come from such a psychedelic chick.” While American Coot adults have gray/black bodies and white bills, their chicks by contrast have a rebellious streak, including this bird in care at our Los Angeles center. … Read more
Video via WildCare One of our favorite bird stories this month is of an American Kestrel named Kele, shown above fulfilling his “foster dad” duties with a baby kestrel at WildCare in San Rafael. Two years ago, Kele originally came to International Bird Rescue’s San Francisco Bay center via members of the public who had … Read more
Photos and video by Paul Berry Canada goslings, Mallard ducklings and Western Gull chicks (shown above) are among many common orphaned birds cared for each year at our centers. Whenever possible, we introduce a surrogate parent so that baby birds imprint on their own species — a critical aspect of bird development. We currently have … Read more
Photo by Michelle Bellizzi The story is so rare, so unusual that Jay Holcomb, International Bird Rescue’s director, can’t remember it ever happening in his 40-year career. It’s a bittersweet story with a heartwarming outcome. On April 22, 2013, a female Mallard Duck who had been hit by a car in Napa, CA, was brought … Read more
Images and video by Michelle Bellizzi Among the many baby birds now in care at our San Francisco Bay center is this Common Merganser chick. Earlier this month, we featured an adult merganser — a Red-breasted Merganser, to be exact — on this blog, one brought to us via an Arizona rehabilitation center (read this … Read more