Bird of Prey Rehab Volunteer [q&a thread, ask me things]

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Bird of Prey Rehab Volunteer [q&a thread, ask me things]

Post by alethe » Sat Sep 24, 2016 7:15 pm

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welcome to birds

Hello! I volunteer at a bird of prey rehabilitation and education center in my spare time, so I wanted to set up something like this, as I'm sure there would be a lot of interested parties around here.

I am aiming to get my falconry license, too, and am well versed in the sport as well so if you want to ask me questions about falconry/hunting with a bird of prey, ask as well.

Currently, we have a wide array of duties to care for our birds, permanent care or rehab. I have done mostly rehab, which consists of treating any ailments wild birds have that people find and bring in. Then we release them again, if possible. This also includes cleaning their kennels. We also care for our own mice out of rehab for prey testing, the process we use to make sure our rehab birds can hunt in the wild. A release!

The other half is education, which I am slowly working up. Education consists of our permanent care birds, birds who cannot be released into the wild. Our duties there consist of training, cleaning cages, walking the birds, sitting with them, and fist feeding them.

Go ahead and ask away about any bird of prey related things/experiences I've had/any of our ed birds.

THE BIRD FAM (aka our wonderful education team! incomplete, will be updating more and more)
Beaker the barred owl. he doesn't much care for people and startles easily. we don't like to mess with him too much.

Rusty the eastern screech owl. he is such a pretty boy. i love him

Jesse the eastern screech. equally beautiful!

Orion the redtailed hawk. he loves to swing on his swinging perch and makes goofy faces at you. not on camera tho. he knows. he also quacks.

FLOOF american kestrel male, unnamed. he is currently in a forever home at a wildlife garden.

Xena, the peregrine falcon. she is sassy. she will only eat quail.

Zesus, the other redtailed hawk. he is the biggest bird we own and he peeps. peep. he also looses his balance easily and could accidentally foot you when he does.

puff vs no puff. this is baby. he's actually a baby. american kestrel male. he loves to scream. what is he screaming about. who knows.

Willie the barn owl. she loves people but not if you wake her up. she will scream if you wake her up. she needs her beauty sleep. she's also my hoco date.
Last edited by alethe on Sat Sep 24, 2016 9:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: Bird of Prey Rehab Volunteer [q&a thread, ask me things]

Post by Koa » Sat Sep 24, 2016 7:57 pm

What's the best bird rehab 'miracle' you've heard of/experienced so far?

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Re: Bird of Prey Rehab Volunteer [q&a thread, ask me things]

Post by alethe » Sat Sep 24, 2016 8:28 pm

Koa wrote:What's the best bird rehab 'miracle' you've heard of/experienced so far?
they sadly don't happen too often. I've never experienced one, but I'd say Zesus, one of our redtailed hawks was a miracle bird. He got electrocuted because he landed on the wrong pole; it went out through his wrist and blew apart the bone. He's in education now.

Another miracle I got to actually see, now that I think about it, happened to one of our ed birds recently. Xena, our peregrine, got sour crop, which is an infection in one of the neck muscles. Sometimes, birds will get food stuck in there and it'll get infected. Usually kills the bird in a day. Luckily the education coordinator knows all the birds so well she caught it before it was fatal.


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Re: Bird of Prey Rehab Volunteer [q&a thread, ask me things]

Post by Uzumaaki » Sat Sep 24, 2016 8:33 pm

is it ever frightening to work with birds of prey? some of them seem so intimidating.

EDIT: and thank you for all your efforts ^_^ i can't imagine its always easy but you're doing a great thing for the birds:'))
Last edited by Uzumaaki on Sat Sep 24, 2016 8:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Bird of Prey Rehab Volunteer [q&a thread, ask me things]

Post by Kivia » Sat Sep 24, 2016 8:33 pm

I commend you for volunteering at a bird rehab center- I did for a time but I just couldn't get past the medical procedures that were done there. Almost fainted while holding a red-tailed hawk as it was getting its blood drawn. =/ So do you have to help with any of the medical side of things?

Also, does your rehab care for other varying bird species, or does it primarily focus on raptors?

Thank you in advance, and thank you for all the work you've done for birds!

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Re: Bird of Prey Rehab Volunteer [q&a thread, ask me things]

Post by alethe » Sat Sep 24, 2016 8:53 pm

Vakarian wrote:is it ever frightening to work with birds of prey? some of them seem so intimidating.

EDIT: and thank you for all your efforts ^_^ i can't imagine its always easy but you're doing a great thing for the birds:'))
it depends on the bird, honestly. i'm not too concerned about any of the birds in education. since i'm new, i don't get to work with any that could be "dangerous," not that any of our ed birds really are. except sweetpea. but she's an eastern screech owl and is about the size of your hand.
she will, however, go for the eyes when you're not watching.
as for rehab, same thing kinda goes. i don't work with rehab of bigger birds yet, but i have watched. we had a cooper's hawk snag the hand of the head education coordinator with his talons. got to her bone. that was fun.
we told her to go to the minute clinic and u know what she says
"they ask too many questions"
asdfghjkl

Kivia wrote:I commend you for volunteering at a bird rehab center- I did for a time but I just couldn't get past the medical procedures that were done there. Almost fainted while holding a red-tailed hawk as it was getting its blood drawn. =/ So do you have to help with any of the medical side of things?

Also, does your rehab care for other varying bird species, or does it primarily focus on raptors?

Thank you in advance, and thank you for all the work you've done for birds!
you can choose not to, but since i'm going prevet in college i'm trying to do as much as i can rehab wise. i have gotten to work with smaller birds and their treatments, so kestrels and eastern screech owls, (sometimes mississippi kites, too) but i only get to watch big birds unless they need someone to help with the treatment.

we only do raptors, to my knowledge. sometimes vultures, but they're technically raptors too.


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Re: Bird of Prey Rehab Volunteer [q&a thread, ask me things]

Post by Uzumaaki » Sat Sep 24, 2016 8:59 pm

Skybreaker wrote:
Vakarian wrote:is it ever frightening to work with birds of prey? some of them seem so intimidating.

EDIT: and thank you for all your efforts ^_^ i can't imagine its always easy but you're doing a great thing for the birds:'))
it depends on the bird, honestly. i'm not too concerned about any of the birds in education. since i'm new, i don't get to work with any that could be "dangerous," not that any of our ed birds really are. except sweetpea. but she's an eastern screech owl and is about the size of your hand.
she will, however, go for the eyes when you're not watching.
as for rehab, same thing kinda goes. i don't work with rehab of bigger birds yet, but i have watched. we had a cooper's hawk snag the hand of the head education coordinator with his talons. got to her bone. that was fun.
we told her to go to the minute clinic and u know what she says
"they ask too many questions"
asdfghjkl
PFFFT she sounds like a fun person lmao
thanks for the response:D i have a tiny lil quaker parrot and find his occasional bites to be painful. i can't even imagine being on the receiving end of a hawk, though. glad to hear most of the birds seem pretty docile:)
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Re: Bird of Prey Rehab Volunteer [q&a thread, ask me things]

Post by alethe » Sat Sep 24, 2016 9:12 pm

Vakarian wrote:
Skybreaker wrote:
Vakarian wrote:is it ever frightening to work with birds of prey? some of them seem so intimidating.

EDIT: and thank you for all your efforts ^_^ i can't imagine its always easy but you're doing a great thing for the birds:'))
it depends on the bird, honestly. i'm not too concerned about any of the birds in education. since i'm new, i don't get to work with any that could be "dangerous," not that any of our ed birds really are. except sweetpea. but she's an eastern screech owl and is about the size of your hand.
she will, however, go for the eyes when you're not watching.
as for rehab, same thing kinda goes. i don't work with rehab of bigger birds yet, but i have watched. we had a cooper's hawk snag the hand of the head education coordinator with his talons. got to her bone. that was fun.
we told her to go to the minute clinic and u know what she says
"they ask too many questions"
asdfghjkl
PFFFT she sounds like a fun person lmao
thanks for the response:D i have a tiny lil quaker parrot and find his occasional bites to be painful. i can't even imagine being on the receiving end of a hawk, though. glad to hear most of the birds seem pretty docile:)
the main thing you really have to watch for in these birds (save for vultures) is the talons, honestly. that'll be their main way to attack. then they bite. but yeah, neither is good and requires medical attention. we volunteers do not handle any birds without gloves, period.


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Re: Bird of Prey Rehab Volunteer [q&a thread, ask me things]

Post by wolf567 » Sun Sep 25, 2016 12:06 pm

Great to hear that you are volunteering for such a worthy cause :D

Is there a minimum amount of time a bird has to stay in your care before release? Or does it depend entirely on each individual?

Also is there any monitoring after they have been released?
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Re: Bird of Prey Rehab Volunteer [q&a thread, ask me things]

Post by alethe » Sun Sep 25, 2016 1:31 pm

wolf567 wrote:Great to hear that you are volunteering for such a worthy cause :D

Is there a minimum amount of time a bird has to stay in your care before release? Or does it depend entirely on each individual?

Also is there any monitoring after they have been released?
it depends on the individual and the damage. A week minimum, probably, any bird we have has to go through prey testing.

No monitoring. We go through so many birds (over 200 already this year) that it would be super expensive to do.


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Re: Bird of Prey Rehab Volunteer [q&a thread, ask me things]

Post by Kivia » Mon Sep 26, 2016 5:35 am

Cool, cool- thanks for the responses!

So have you practiced some falconry yet? If so, what bird has been your favorite to work with?
I guess I should also ask who is your favorite bird to work with at the center?

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Re: Bird of Prey Rehab Volunteer [q&a thread, ask me things]

Post by alethe » Tue Oct 18, 2016 2:09 pm

Kivia wrote:Cool, cool- thanks for the responses!

So have you practiced some falconry yet? If so, what bird has been your favorite to work with?
I guess I should also ask who is your favorite bird to work with at the center?
not yet, sadly. I'm not in a stable enough location to do so, going to college next year and the apprenticship is a two year commitment.
Plus, building mews is expensive and hard to move with me.

My fav birds are Baby, one of the kestrels, and Orion, the redtail. Pippin is also super fun; he's a redshouldered hawk. He plays with rocks in his mew.

Edit: I held Baby again a few days ago; he was a far better eater than before and liked being on my fist. Its always fun to fist feed the birds.

I also held a rehab cooper's hawk while my coordinator tweezer fed it; it had been having trouble eating the food we were giving it and it needed a jump start.

We also have a peregrine falcon now in rehab, which is rare. We're aiming to get it back in the wild soon before it misses its migration.


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