Rescuing Baby Birds
Spring is bird mating season, and every year the Wild Bird Rehab Haven helps about 1,000 baby birds recover from abandonment or a fall from their nest. This year the center needs help too: volunteers and a new home
By .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
E-mail this story | Print this page | Archive | RSS
ication until we can get the birds out into a home.”
Once healed, they go to a private aviary where they can stretch their wings until they are strong enough to fly away. Some are permanently disabled - missing a foot, wing or eye - and can eat on their own but need a permanent home.
The Wild Bird Rehab Haven is a non-profit organization, completely dependent on volunteers and private and corporate donations. It is the primary organization on the Island that helps wild birds. (The Humane Society and the Honolulu Zoo do not have wild bird programs.)
The group is looking for reduced-rent or donated space of about 300 square feet, be it an office, warehouse or a space in a house, where they can continue to rehabilitate birds. E-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 292-3948 with any ideas or offers.
In case the possibility of avian flu scares you,The Pet Doctor’s Dr. Eric Ako offers comforting words. “Avian flu is not here, and in any case it effects migratory species like ducks and geese,” explained Dr. Ako who often treats WBRH birds. “It’s mostly happening in Asian countries in unsanitary conditions, where farmers are living with literally hundreds of ducks and chicken. It’s not a risk here because we don’t do it like that. The Wild Bird Rehab Haven rescues the little ‘city birds,’ so to speak.”
Little Critters Will Come To Your Keiki’s Classroom
This month marks the Wild Bird Rehab Haven education program’s one-year anniversary.
“We offer a 45-minute interactive program geared toward kindergarten through second grade,” says education coordinator Jenn Cook. “We go to schools to talk to children about what to do if you find a baby bird. We’ve talked to more than 600 students, and we don’t limit it to K through 2. We talk to organizations like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
“We actually take little babies into the classroom to show the students, and we have a lot of visuals and a fabulous book we read called Mele da Mynah’s Noisy Ohana, written by a local author (Carmen Geshell) about birds on the islands so they can identify the birds in the book.”
The children learn about doves, finches, cardinals, sparrows, pigeons and any of more than a dozen types of birds the haven nurtures and releases back into the wild.
“We get the kids making bird noises, and we teach them about bird habits and how to identify a male from a female,” says Cook.
“The purpose of the program is to teach compassion and understanding for all animals, but not just for animals. Cruelty to animals gets bigger and grows to other children and then to adults,” says Cook, who recounts stories of rescuing birds from children who didn’t see the cruelty in playing catch with a baby bird or stepping on it.
Cook provides the children with goodies to take home, like a coloring book of some of Hawaii’s birds, and a packet of birdseed, so they can throw it outside and show off to Mom and Dad their knowledge of the various birds that flock to the yard.
“The education program really is my passion,” she says. “That’s what drives me - the fact that they’re so fascinated and they listen. I sit with the kids and actually show them how to care for the bird, and we always stress to them to get an adult to help. Every class has been incredible. It’s been amazing, and I look forward to the next one.”
Cook plans to put up a photo display of the education program at WBRH’s booth at the Pet Expo May 12 and 13 at Blaisdell Center.
She will have activities for the keiki, free refrigerator magnets and lots of information for adult visitors, including the group’s new bi-monthly newsletter, The Fledgling.
For more information, to arrange a classroom visit, to make a donation or to help with finding a new office and intake center, e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 447-9274.
Page 2 of 2 pages for this story < 1 2
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS
Most Recent Comment(s):
