Bird Cams Around the World

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.

Here is a California Brown Pelican getting an exam:



Note the yellow feathers on top of his head. He is at least five years old. Juvenile pelicans have brown feathers, darn brown heads, and dark brown eyes. This fella on the table has blue eyes, another clue that he is an adult. He is briefly uncovered while his head is examined.

Pelicans have no nostrils. They breathe through their long bills. When one is holding a pelican, with his head covered, one holds onto the bill, near the top, making sure the bill is open.

What happens after the exam depends on the species and condition of the bird.

Almost all of the birds are dehydrated, so we tube them with warm electrolyte (unflavored Pedialyte). The amount of fluid is determined by the size of the bird. Grebes and ducks get around 50cc. Pelicans get more. Hydrating a bird and keeping him warm is very important.

Aquatic birds spend most of their lives on the water. It is essential that their feathers are waterproof. Their feathers may have been contaminated by dirt, feces, etc. The bird is wrapped and carried outside to one of our warm water pools, heated to 90-95 F. If he's headed for one of these pools, we will tube him right before we put him into the pool, which is enclosed (there's a small door). I think most of the birds enjoy this water, and they paddle around and have a few drinks.

Outdoor warm water pools. The first four you see are the filtering system and beyond that are the pools themselves:



After 15 minutes or so, we will remove him, wrap him, and check the feathers on his breast. They will be surface wet, but underneath they should be dry and fluffy. If the feathers are wet next to the skin, we take him inside and put him in a net-bottomed pen (or large peli box if this is a pelican). A special fan with warm air is placed under the pen (or in the peli box). The pen is covered with a sheet, and the bird relaxes here for half an hour or so, until he is thoroughly dry. He is removed and his waterproofing is checked again.

Two grebes sharing a warm water pool:

Here are some brand new net-bottomed pens, designed by OWCN (Oiled Wildlife Care Network). There are nets stretched across the bottom of the pens. This is more comfortable for pelagic birds and also allows their feces to fall through the netting. The floors are washed often in the hospital.



The pens are in Holding 2, the large room reserved for birds contaminated in oil spills (and algae bloom spills). During an oil spill, the room is heated to 90F, to keep the birds warm. When they are coated with oil, their feathers no longer keep the birds warm.

In the video about the algae bloom birds, there are clips of both Holding 1 and Holding 2.

Sometimes people bring us birds who don't need to be rescued. These are usually fledglings, who may be on the ground.

Last summer, a Great Horned Owl fledgling was brought in. When the public brings us a bird, we get the details of when and where the bird was found, what he was fed (hopefully, nothing!), and how long the "rescuer" had the bird. Here's the owlet in ICU:



There was nothing wrong with him, so one of our staff took him back to his tree, where his worried parents were waiting.



He was placed on a branch of the tree.



Volunteers returned to the tree that evening and the next two evenings to make sure the youngster was ok. All was well, and the parents were taking care of him.

Here's an X-ray of a duck who swallowed a fishing hook. The hook was successfully removed in surgery by our veterinarian. The duck recovered and was eventually released.

Thank you. Please keep in mind that I am not an expert, nor am I a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. I work under the permit of IBRRC and cannot practice rehab outside of the hospital. To be fully certified means taking many courses and passing exams. And years of hands-on experience. But I am learning.

Right now, it is comparatively quiet at IBRRC. So I thought I would post a few stories.

On July 23, 1996, a hatching year Great Blue Heron, tangled in fishing line with fishing hooks embedded in its wing, was captured and brought to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, CA. The bird was stabilized and treated for puncture wounds from hooks and abrasions from entanglement in the fishing line. The next day the bird was brought to the International Bird Rescue Research Center’s aquatic bird rehabilitation facility in Berkeley, CA (we were there before we got our new facility in Fairfield in 2000). The bird was put on a regimen of antibiotics and treated for its wounds. It’s recovery was quick and the bird did well. On July 29, 1996 the bird was banded, number 0977-04747, and released in the Suisun Marsh in Fairfield.

Twelve years later on May 28, 2008, the same Great Blue Heron, now an adult but still wearing band number 0977-04747, was again found entangled in fishing line and fish hooks and was captured at a marina in Oakley, near Concord, CA. The bird was brought to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum which, again, did an excellent job of stabilizing it and removing the fish hooks and line that were tangled around its wing and leg. The bird was then transferred to IBRRC’s new facility in Cordelia, CA. (see attached picture) As before, it was treated for its wounds, held a week or so and on June 5, 2008 it was released healthy and strong back into the Suisun Marsh.


Great Blue Heron in rehab at IBRRC, Fairfield

California has a number of prestigious wildlife rehabilitation organizations that remain open 365 days a year to provide shelter and state of the art care for native wildlife in need of care. The Lindsey Wildlife Museum and IBRRC are two of those organizations and are considered leaders in the unique field of wildlife rehabilitation. Both organizations have worked in tandem for years to support each to provide the best care for local wildlife.

IBRRC specializes in aquatic bird rehabilitation and has specialized facilities to achieve this. The Lindsay Museum cares for many species of native wildlife including raptors, passerines, terrestrial mammals and reptiles. When IBRRC receives an owl or occasional mammal for care, we send them on to the museum for rehabilitation. In turn, they send us the aquatic birds that can benefit from our program and specialized facility. Together we have helped hundreds of animals by cooperating with each other and putting the needs of the animals first.

Great Blue Heron, band number 0977-04747, is a testament to this important relationship and the dedication of these two organizations.


Great Blue Heron released in 2008

Wow Beans! Great info. I've been a fan of your organization on Facebook, and I've seen great stuff. I am a licensed rehabber in Virginia. We have Tri-State Birds on the east coast for specialized water bird care, thank goodness. They must learn a lot from your group.

IBRRC is headquarters for the Oiled Wildlife Care Network. We have internships for rehabbers from all over the world. We also teach the latest protocols for caring for oiled wildlife. And we are invited to supervise the care of oiled wildlife all over the world. I haven't gone, but those I work with have performed this work. It can be frustrating, because to properly wash oiled wildlife we need almost an endless supply of hot water, which should be soft water, not hard water, Dawn detergent, pelagic pens, dryers, and pools for rehabilitation. We bring equipment for blood tests, too. It is a major undertaking, and other facilities help, too. IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) does a lot of excellent work.

I've mentioned net-bottomed pens (pelagic pens), but we also have wall cages at IBRRC.

These wall cages are for birds who can stand and walk and sit on land. We don't have to worry that they will damage their keels when they sit.

Our wall cages were covered with towels, to give the patients privacy and calm them. Seeing people scares the heck out of them and delays or prevents their recovery. So they need time to themselves.

The problem with the towels is that they admitted no light into the cages. The birds sat in "twilight" during the day. Also, the towels didn't completely cover the cage doors, and birds could peek out and see people walking around.


wall cages in Holding 1

I told the Wildlife Rehabilitation Manager that I could design and sew some covers for the cage door that would admit the light, be easy to slip on, and give the occupant more privacy.

It took three designs, but finally I had one that worked. And then I sewed more. And more!


wall cage cover

I thought they should look nice, so the envelope at the top, which fits over the top of the cage door, is a nice material. The rest of the cover hands down inside the cage and is white. We want the cover to hang inside the cage as this protects the bills of our patients.


wall cages with their covers in ICU

When the cage is unoccupied, the white part that hands down can be folded up and hang over the top of the cage. It's easy and fast to unfold the cover and let it cover the whole door when a bird is put into the cage. The cage is washed every day and a new cover put on the door. Also, all is washed before another bird is put into the cage.

I made about 30 of these and wrote out the instructions and gave them to the hospital so that other volunteers could sew them. We have a good supply now.

Oh my goodness you do it all
Give yourself a big pat on the back and big hug from me for all the wonderful things you do