A Day at the Education Training Center (E.T.C.)

A lot goes on behind the scenes at the World Bird Sanctuary that most guests and volunteers don’t even realize.

Between the three buildings and many more outdoor mews (bird housing), live a myriad of birds. Many of the birds are used in programs, but not any that you might see at a school event or camp outing such as the programs presented by the education department. Instead, these birds move out of state every summer to educate guests at zoos, theme parks, aquariums, and more.

Osiris, one of our veteran zoo show performers

Other birds at the lower site are pairs of birds that have been together for years, producing some of the out of state bird stars. Many of the breeding birds have gotten older though, and are producing fewer offspring. However, these birds are still called upon by the rehabilitation department when a baby owl or other raptor is found out of the nest. The largest species of owl, the Eurasian eagle owl, has helped to foster barred owl and great horned owl chicks brought into our rehabilitation department, teaching these wild birds how to be an owl before they are released back into the wild.

A Barred Owl baby

Behind the scenes is also home to many of our education ambassador eagles that participate in programs in January and February at the Eagle Day events presented throughout Missouri and the Midwest, and the “flying team” of eagles we affectionately refer to as “Bubbas.” The ‘Bubbas’ have flown at Busch Stadium, Silver Dollar City in Branson, Crown Valley Winery and for the Chicago Bears, just to name a few. These eagles were also the birds that were flown last January to early April in Buder Park on the weekends.

Clark, one of our flying Eagles, training at Buder Park

In the morning, all the raptors on anklets and jesses go outside for the day to weather. This gives them the opportunity to sun bathe, eat, splash in their water bowls, and watch the wildlife. The rest of the morning staff time is spent preparing food and feeding all the 60 birds that call the E.T.C. building home, in addition to the 60 plus babies in the breeding barns, and the display birds on the ‘line’ at WBS’s public site.

 One of our Bateleur Eagles sunning in the weathering area

With the responsibility of over 80% of the World Bird Sanctuary’s animals’ food prep, freezers are kept stocked with donations of rabbit, venison, rats, mice, chicks, chickens, and fish. The wide variety of diets fed include food for parrots, omnivores like Pied Crows and White-necked Ravens, raptors like eagles, hawks, owls, vultures, falcons, and even chickens, rats and a snake. And no, the live rats are not food!  After the tables and dishes are washed, the humans grab a quick lunch before continuing with the clean up.

The raptor room, where most of the raptors spend the night, has to be cleaned of all the meals that have gone through their digestive systems. Any spare time includes special projects for the birds' upkeep, from rewrapping perches to changing shavings or freshening waters.

Osiris, our Egyptian Vulture, practicing a natural behavior peculiar to this species--breaking an egg with a rock!

Many birds are trained to do specific behaviors for shows and need to be worked to keep them in shape. An afternoon can easily become an all day task just working the birds for their food. This training comes under the heading of enrichment and keeps the birds from getting bored.

One of our Seriemas demonstrating this species' snake catching and "slamming" technique

A couple of hours before ‘lights out’, bowls are pulled from the parrots and the rest of their papers are cleaned, and baths given to these rainforest denizens. This gives the parrots time to splash—a behavior they would do on their own in the wild. Once the parrot room is cleaned, all the raptors that went out in the morning are returned to the clean raptor room to begin the cycle again.

It is good to be busy rather than idle. Our thanks to all the wonderful volunteers who have discovered the secret garden of the E.T.C. We really couldn’t do it without you. The birds appreciate it as well!

Submitted by Christina Lavallee, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist