Friday, June 6, 2008

Rescued kestrel chicks and their foster mom...

Among our many responsibilities at the World Bird Sanctuary, the care and rehabilitation of injured birds is one of the most important. The goal of rehabilitation is to save the life of birds in distress, with release being the ultimate objective whenever possible. Releasing a recovered bird into the wild is an incredible experience and many lives are saved thanks to public donations and support. WBS is entirely non-profit, which means that the lives and well being of these birds are dependent on public donations. If you'd like to help birds like the kestrel chicks in this video, please consider donating! Every dollar counts and is appreciated more than words can say.

Kestrels are the smallest falcons in North America. One of our staff picked up these two chicks from a driveway; three older chicks from the same nest had already died. We are fostering them with our Eurasian kestrels, Paris and Bristol. They are doing well, and when they are grown they will be released. Paris is a great mom!




Special thanks to Jennifer Bender for the video and description!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh wow those chicks were cute. Did the parents die or abandon them?

The Eurasian Kestral female adopted them as her own even though they werent?

Would you mind explaining the process a little more, it is so interesting and I dont know much about it.

If you have any more videos of the foster mommy that would be awesome!!

Thanks for all the great work you guys do in helping save the birds. That is why I support you and tell all my friends about you!!
I just wish I lived closer.

World Bird Sanctuary said...

I believe they were knocked out of the nest in a storm and abandoned.

Paris adopted and is raising them just like they were her own. We have a number of great "foster mom" birds who regularly raise orphaned chicks. It is pretty awesome.

After rescue and a thorough health check in rehab, eligible chicks are placed in the foster nest and carefully monitored. This process is especially important for release birds. Owls especially become too used to humans and will imprint unless raised by birds.

As an interesting side note, we also use chickens to incubate eggs for us!

Thanks for supporting us! Maybe you'll get to visit us sometime, or we'll have a program in your area. We have birds at the Milwaukee zoo and the Stone Zoo in Boston all summer, as well as regional programs.

Anonymous said...

Oh wow, how neat that you have foster moms. It is very interesting how amazing animals can be.

I would love to come visit WBS.

Thank you for helping me understand how it all works!