Wild Bird Fund Hospital New York
The Doctor is IN
Geoffrey from New York
The Wild Bird Fund provides care and rehabilitation to wildlife through private donations and mostly volunteer labor.
It’s a storefront operation, not sleek but busy.
I go to this unique working hospital to observe, support, ask questions and see up close, who (animal-wise) has been visiting NYC these days.
Patients have included:
• A Great Horned Owl, who was cured of west Nile virus;
• A black (1 in 10,000) Eastern Grey Squirrel with burned paws and a cut up nose who was nursed, released and started raising a family in a newly built squirrel house.
• A Red Tailed Hawk who had eaten a too much near the Central Park Reservoir, wound up in the water and was too heavy to get aloft. Found, he was blow-dried, rehabilitated and released.
• A Peregrine Falcon (pictured) picked up in Brooklyn, unable to stand or fly, had two broken coracoid bones, was dehydrated and underweight. What kind of mugger might have done this? — another angry Peregrine falcon. This young victim had flown into another falcon’s territory and had been mugged. The force of a falcon’s dive, which can reach over 200mph, can kill or severely injure on impact, like this attacker had, but this victim made a complete recovery.
On a side note, almost every bird that is brought in has some degree of lead poisoning. I wonder if we do, too.
Watch an uplifting video about the hospital's noble work here.
Take the 1, B or C Train to 86th, walk one block to Columbus.
New York Spotter Geoffrey
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