Black Rail, banded and released

Photo by Isabel Luevano An elusive bird that hides in thick marsh vegetation, the Black Rail is listed as a near-threatened species (and formally listed as a threatened species by the State of California). The rail’s wetland habitat, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) notes, “is threatened by pollution, drought, wildfires, groundwater removal, … Read more

Weekend muses: An egret family

Photo © Silvermans Photography If only all of our family portraits could be this perfect … A banded Snowy Egret cared for by our SF Bay center team, now in the wild and with chicks. Check out photographers Susan and Neil Silverman’s work at silvermansphotography.com.

An update on “Pink” the pelican

Dr. Rebecca Duerr with “Pink” during the animal’s first surgery, photos by Bill Steinkamp. After a week filled with heartbreaking images of our latest animal cruelty patient, we’re pleased to give you some good news today: The adult California Brown Pelican mutilated by an unknown suspect has completed a successful first surgery to repair an … Read more

A Red-breasted Merganser at our SF Bay center

Photos by Cheryl Reynolds This female Red-breasted Merganser was found at Main Beach in Santa Cruz on April 6 and was transported to us via our wildlife partners at Native Animal Rescue on Saturday. Upon intake, she was found to be emaciated with poor feather quality, and was suffering from toe abrasions, a likely result … Read more

Orphan season: Green Heron

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

Flying practice for pelican Red #308

Photo by Cheryl Reynolds Recently, we wrote about pelican conservation on the Pacific Coast in this Los Angeles Times op-ed. The star of the piece was Brown Pelican Red #308, who came to us several months ago with a severe injury to his left patagium (a fold of skin on the leading edge of the … Read more