Emergency Wildlife Rescue

Most of the birds we admit to the hospital have been rescued by volunteers and staff, our own or those at other wildlife centers. The public also brings in sick or injured birds.

Safely catching an injured or sick bird isn’t easy. We never catch them in the air, as this would be very dangerous for the bird! It takes a great deal of patience and stealth to catch birds in the field. Oiled birds beach themselves, but they will quickly retreat to the cold water to avoid capture. It’s essential to position yourself between the bird and the water.

When I took the Emergency Wildlife Rescue class on January 17, one of the exercises was to catch a bird in the field. Naturally, we didn’t use real birds in this class. The instructor made this “RoboDuck” for us to practice with.

This video is from the last training with East Bay Regional Parks workers. The evil RoboDuck is able to reach a top speed of 35 miles an hour and simulates a wild bird's reluctance to be captured. It was built by Duane Titus of WildRescue.


The evil roboduck

Video: Robo Duck!

When we are trying to catch real birds, we are gentle, of course. Success means moving quietly in a very stealth-like way until one is close enough. No one can outrun a bird, even an oiled one. Exceptions would be pelagic birds which have their legs at the back of their body. They aren't meant to be on land, and are clumsy in their movements. These birds take off from the water. Ducks, on the other hand, are faster than fleas on skates!

According to IBRRC:

The first group of Wildlife Emergency Response classes have been a tremendous success. Thanks to the 385 committed folks who attended the trainings.

These classes grew out of an increased interest in animal capture and care by the public and public agencies following the November 2007 Cosco Busan spill. They wanted to learn more about how to help saved animals in crisis situation and IBRRC saw a new opportunity to enhance local capabilities to help wildlife in need of rescue and rehabilitation.

These all day programs were developed by WildRescue and put on by International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC), one of the world leaders in the recovery and care of oiled wildlife and aquatic birds.

I shall now answer the question you are all too polite to ask: Did I catch the Duck? Yes.

2009 was a very busy year at IBRRC. It began with hundreds of pelicans at both of our centers (Fairfield and San Pedro), sick cormorants a bit later on, lots of natural seep oiled birds in San Pedro and many fish tackle and seal bite pelicans there and eventually in Cordelia, baby cormorants from eggs, 1,500 ducklings, and ended with the algae event and the Dubai Star oil spill.

That does not take into consideration all the wonderful birds that were considered “general rehab birds” throughout the year.

IBRRC cared for about 5,000 aquatic birds in 2009 and provided the best care we could for all of them. We released many of them (actual numbers to come in 2010) and each of those birds got a second chance primarily because of our great team of experienced & skilled staff and volunteers.

Good News: Dawn increased its donation to save marine wildlife to $3 for every bottle of dishwashing liquid purchased and activated before January 4th, 2010. The donation supports both International Bird Rescue Research Center and the Marine Mammal Center.

It only takes a moment to add the bottle ID number, your zip code and the store where you purchased your bottle. Please register your bottle of Dawn HERE



Video: Help Dawn Save Wildlife

More than 30 years ago, International Bird Rescue Research Center was seeking a solution to clean oil from bird’s feathers. IBRRC discovered that Dawn dishwashing liquid was powerful enough to effectively remove oil while remaining gentle on feathers, skin and eyes. Since then, rescue groups worldwide have chosen Dawn to clean aquatic animals.

I'm going to backtrack a little to tell you the story of hatching and raising baby Double-Crested Cormorants in 2009.

When the feces from these cormorants nesting on electric towers in the South San Francisco Bay region began to cause serious shortages and information loss, a local utility agency had to take action by removing some of the nests to prevent further damage. International BIrd Rescue is incubating eggs and rearing some of the cormorant chicks that came from these towers. Plans are now in place to prevent the birds from nesting in the future. In the meantime, we are posting photos of the birds as they grow from egg to adulthood and are released. This is the second time we have raised and rehabilitated baby cormorants from eggs. Last year, we raised a small batch of cormorants and had about a 60 percent release rate of wild, healthy juvenile cormorants. Follow their growth and rehabilitation with us.


newly hatched babies


babies with puppet

They are born naked, with their eyes closed. This is one of the puppets we use to feed them when their eyes open.

They must be fed every hour. We give them tiny slivers of raw smelt, using tweezers. We wear black gloves (like surgical gloves).

After their eyes open, we wear Kormorant Kostumes, which look like black burkhas. We cut off the feet of black knee-high stockings and slip them over our arms, above the black gloves. It is essential that the growing chicks not associate humans with food.


one of the Kormorant Kostumes


So tiny

Video: Raising Baby Cormorants

In the beginning of the video, you can see our large egg incubator in our Intensive Care Unit. Next you see the youngest chicks, several days old, being fed in an incubator, also inICU. As the one behind the camera, I am also wearing a KK. ICU is around 90 F, and I am sweating under my costume.

The next video clips show increasingly older chicks. The oldest ones in this video were taken from an outdoor cage in a special section of our Pelican Aviary to one of the inside cages, where they will spend the night.

In one clip you will see the babies poking the beak of the decoy in an effort to be fed.

When they were fully feathered, they were moved outside, to a special place in our Pelican Aviary, where they could feed on their own and fly.

Now we should talk about how we check birds into our hospital. There are several ways we get our patients. We pick them up in the field; we pick them up from another hospital; the public brings the birds to us.

The procedure is the same for all birds, and even though we specialize in aquatic birds, any bird brought to us is checked in. Sometimes it's a raptor or songbird. We stabilize these birds and then drive them to the appropriate hospital. Most of the time, we keep them overnight, where they can have some quiet time in our Intensive Care Unit. We hydrate them and feed them, following specific protocols.

When we pick up a bird, we transport him in an appropriate container. Most of the birds fit nicely into a small carrier, but others, such as pelicans, need a large dog kennel.

First we put the carriers in our ICU (heated to 90 F) to keep our patients warm. Then we bring the carriers into the clinic, open them carefully, cover the bird with a pillowcase or towel, and gently lift them out of the box and put them on the exam table. We keep their heads covered as this mitigates their terror. All wild birds are terrified of humans, and they don't/can't understand that we are helping them.

This is a carrier with a bird that was picked up from another hospital. Note that the paperwork from the hospital is on top of the carrier.



Before the bird is removed from the carrier, we have entered the information that came with him into our computer. Each bird is given a number, so we can keep track of all of our patients.

The bird is wrapped in a pillowcase or towel (or sheet if it is a pelican) and weighed. We use grams, not ounces. (The pillowcase, etc., is weighed before we weigh the bird.)

The exam is thorough and performed as quickly and gently as possible.

1) We take his temperature with an instant-read anal thermometer.
2) We check his body to find broken bones, wounds, fishhooks, etc.
3) We listen to his heart and lungs with a special stethoscope.
4) We inspect his feet, his eyes, and the inside of his bill.
5) We check for parasites
6) We take a tiny amount of blood

Here a picture of the clinic



The exam tables are covered with towels, which have a heating pad underneath.