Dear Friends, Recent bird hazing efforts at Oakland International Airport have raised concerns about how the birds were shot and left to die and why authorities didn’t alert local wildlife agencies. Late on December 23, International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) was asked to assist in capturing injured birds spotted just south of the Oakland … Read more
Beginning in mid-April, natural resource agencies began receiving reports of dead and dying cormorants (and occasionally other coastal birds) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dozens of dead Brandt’s Cormorants were found at a nesting colony on Alcatraz Island, and more that 100 have since been reported or recovered on the coast from Marin County … Read more
A Canadian company is under fire this week for under-reporting duck deaths at an oil sands plant in northern Alberta. A Syncrude executive admitted 1,606 duck carcasses were collected from the toxic oily waters – three times more than was reported following the incident last year. The ponds contain waste from the process of separating … Read more
An important new study about the 2007 Monterey Bay bird die off is pointing toward a red-tide algae bloom that induced a dangerous sea foam. According to the study, the birds feathers lost their water-repellant nature after being coated with the foam. The main species in the red tide was a type of dinoflagellate known … Read more
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will hold a two-day public hearing Cosco Busan oil spill that dumped around 55,000 gallons of fuel oil into San Francisco Bay after striking the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The hearing will be held at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 8 at the NTSB’s Board Room and Conference Center, … Read more
The recent rash of bird deaths in Richardson Bay may be avian cholera. The first necrospy done on three birds showed that one bird died of this highly contagious bacteria. The disease is commonly transmitted through contact with secretions or feces of infected birds or the ingestion of food or water containing the bacteria. According … Read more
As the Cosco Busan spill response finally comes to an end, the official tally for bird deaths reached 2,500. This includes 1,851 birds collected dead since the November 7th oil spill. Another 649 birds died or were euthanized during initial treatment at the joint OWCN/IBRRC wildlife hospital in Cordelia, CA. On a happier note, 404 … Read more