By Kristen Kanatzar, Wildlife Technician

The Orphan Care Unit (OCU) is dedicated to the care of young, orphaned wildlife such as squirrels and finches. As they are found along the West Coast of the US, Canada, and Mexico, another species we care for in the OCU are nestling and juvenile California Scrub-Jays. One of our recent patients was a nestling scrub-jay that had most likely fallen out of their nest. On intake we found the bird to be in good health overall but with a head tilt. Head tilts are usually a sign of neurological damage and brain swelling. Although the exact cause of the injury was unknown, the patient most likely hit their head on a hard surface when they tumbled from the nest. We prescribed anti-inflammatories to help reduce the suspected swelling of the brain. These medications also provided the young bird with pain relief. The patient quickly started to improve, and within ten days the juvenile scrub-jay was no longer showing any signs of trauma. OCU continued to provide supportive care until they were old enough to survive on their own. After five weeks in care, the healthy bird was released back into the wild.

Juveniles scrub-jays are mostly gray in color with sections of blue on their tails and wings. They are significantly fluffier than adults as they still have their downy feathers that help keep them warm. As they get older, they shed these downy feathers, and they sleek down into their new adult plumage with the distinctive bright blue colors.

Juvenile California Scrub-Jay

Another California Scrub-Jay who recently came through our doors was suspected to have been caught in a glue trap. The fledgling bird was cared for in OCU, where they were stabilized before being cleaned. Technicians carefully removed the glue contamination with specialized solvents and warm soapy water. The washing process can be extremely stressful on wild animals, so technicians were only able to clean small portions of the feathers at a time. After about a week the scrub-jay was completely free of contaminations and was soon moved into an outdoor aviary. One month after being admitted to our facility, the California Scrub-Jay was ready for release.

Scrub-jays tend to live in coastal woodlands but can often be seen in urban areas and in people’s backyards. They are omnivores that tend to scavenge for food including fruits, insects, nuts, seeds, and small animals such as lizards and other hatchling birds. Being part of the corvid family, which includes crows and ravens, scrub-jays are highly intelligent and can often have a sneaky side.

We will frequently catch them in their enclosures playfully tossing mealworms around and helping feed each other. They will also take some of their food and attempt to hide it within the enclosure much like they would in the wild.

These two young birds were fortunate to make it to our facility. Through the hard work and dedication of the OCU staff and volunteers, these California Scrub-Jays got a second chance at life!

By Dr. Guthrum Purdin, DVM

Photo by Dr. Guthrum Purdin, DVM

If you have a birdfeeder in California or have an eye for birds flittering by the side of the trail, you’ve seen House Finches. They’re small, lively, streaky grey birds; only about 21gm (0.74oz) on average. The males’ heads, chests, and shoulders are boldly colored red or reddish orange, looking like they’ve been dipping a little too deeply into somebody’s red wine! Last year, CWC received just over 300 of these little birds that had been rescued by the public, many of them babies still dependent on their parents (or we humans as substitutes…) for care.

Considering this species ranges so widely, from southern Canada, through the United States, and all the way to Central America, living in often harsh environmental conditions, you’d think they would be easy to raise — but you would be mistaken! Baby House Finches (or HOFIs) require very specific food and handling.

Most baby songbirds, regardless of what they eat as adults, are fed an insect diet by their parents. This is done because insects are high in protein — just the thing babies of any species need to grow. Adult HOFIs on the other hand, feed their chicks mostly seeds (including poison oak) and just 2% of the diet is insects. To match these nutritional needs, we mix together the formula diets of two different kinds of birds—those that eat only seeds and those that eat mostly animal protein. It took a lot of experimentation but this mixture provides exactly what HOFI hatchlings, nestlings, and fledglings need.

But that’s not all! Chicks energetically beg food from their parents from sunrise to sunset. Their one job is to eat and grow, and they take that very seriously! As long as it’s light in the room, someone must be ready to feed them. That’s every 30 minutes for hatchlings and every 45 minutes for nestlings and older. When you’ve got racks and racks full of hungry mouths cheeping and waving their yellow beaks & red mouths around, it’s exhausting to keep up. Fortunately, once the lights are out they go right to sleep. As long as they get a good meal before it’s dark, their metabolisms will slow, processing the formula through the night. When morning comes, it’s right back to work for everyone. House Finch parents work hard, and so do our staff and volunteers!

Relying on their parents to decide how much food they should eat, young HOFIs don’t know when they’re full and it’s time to stop begging. So, they beg and gape, gape and beg until their crops can become overfull and stretched out. A ‘crop’ is an out-pocketing of the esophagus at the base of the neck, used to store food between meals in some species. Birds that feed on sporadic food sources in the environment use crops to fill-up between foraging opportunities. But the chicks don’t know when enough is enough, so their crops can become stretched out with food and sit there becoming a petri dish for bacteria, yeast, and protozoal parasites. To deal with this we closely control how much they get at each feeding, checking crops before feeding a nest of hungry mouths. If a bird has slow crop clearance or looks “out of sorts” we take a sample of crop fluid, check it under a microscope, and assign the appropriate medication for whatever organisms may be freeloading in their crops.

So, ‘Don’t Feed Too Much’ is a major rule with HOFIs. Feeding too little is a different problem. If not enough food is given while they are growing, they can become weak and develop poor feathering that may never improve, leaving them flightless or unable to survive the chill of winter.

Photo by Dr. Guthrum Purdin, DVM

Hatchlings have no feathers except a few whisps on their heads and are kept warm by their parents until they grow feathers. Consequently, housing is a warm incubator unit for the youngest HOFIs. Once feathered, nestlings are okay for room temperature housing. A fledgling will hop out of the nest, but still can’t quite fly. They want to be away from the nest as soon as they can because nests are at higher risk of predator attacks. Unfortunately, kindhearted people sometimes find these flightless youngsters and think the parents have abandoned them. If you see a cheeping, feathered little grey bird like this, watch it from a distance. Chances are the parent is just out of sight waiting to feed the little one.

At this stage we offer them a tempting selection of chopped greens and seed. Their beaks are still soft, and they aren’t experienced in how to shell seeds, so the greens, like broccoli florets, are the first thing they’ll eat. An adult may shell and swallow a seed in less than a second, while a fledgling may carry a seed around for 20 minutes, practicing handling (beaking?) techniques.  In the wild, once fledglings start to fly, they follow their father closely for a few weeks learning what to eat. In human care, as they make the transition to independence, teenage HOFIs have to learn to feed themselves and we are there to support them while they finish growing up.

Only a few short weeks after hatching, they’re self-feeding and ready for the aviary. We raise groups together and after they’ve had some time to exercise and stretch their wings, the whole group will be returned to the wild together — a brand new flock like a busload of teenagers heading off to college.

Dr. Guthrum Purdin, DVM, co-authored the chapters covering House Finches and Blackbirds in the text Hand-Rearing Birds, 2nd Edition, which is an indispensable resource for rehabilitators and other animal care professionals. He also co-edited Topics in Wildlife Medicine Vol. 4: Orthopedics, in which he co-wrote chapters covering fracture repair in songbirds, doves, and hummingbirds.

By Guthrum Purdin, DVM

Photo by Guthrum Purdin, DVM

This Great Horned Owl was brought to CWC from West Valley Animal Control one afternoon back in late September. There was no history to go with the transfer, why she had come into care was unknown. What was immediately apparent however, were abrasions on the bird’s cere (the base of the upper beak) and, although the talons could still grip, she was dehydrated and unable to stand. The wounds were cleaned and subcutaneous fluid given to rehydrate the bird.

In addition, nonsteroidal anti-inflammation medication was started. This was done to control possible pain, but even more importantly because head trauma was strongly suspected. A head injury, such as being hit by a car, can cause inflammation and swelling in the brain. Symptoms of brain swelling can take a few days to manifest, and that’s what we saw happening to this owl. Although able to stand on the second day in care, she was staring off into the distance as if unaware of what was going on around her, until she was actually touched by a caregiver. Her right wing was drooping with no injuries found by palpation or x-rays.

Then, two days later, she started spinning in circles. This worsened over the next few days. At any stimulus, the owl would start turning to the left, spinning repeatedly, over and over. Her pupils were very different sizes (called anisocoria), the left much larger than the right. The right eye would focus on moving objects, but the left would not, seemingly blind. Things were looking grim for the owl, and we feared she was not going to recover. When our veterinarian looked at her, he found the eyes were structurally normal, with no outward sign of injury; the problem seemed completely associated with her brain. Head trauma can cause “central blindness,” where the eyes are structurally normal, but there is damage to the visual centers of the brain. More promisingly, the owl would occasionally stop spinning and make the loud “beak clattering” noise that Great Horned Owls do to show aggression and as a warning to strangers to “back off!” Despite her cerebral compromise, she was self-aware enough to warn her caregivers to be wary. Now, when touched, she’d turn to bite. She always missed but was determined to try!

Treatment continued, and we monitored her carefully. If she could see people, she’d start spinning, but if left alone, would stop and relax. After about two weeks, the owl was eating on her own, no longer requiring being hand fed. Her eyes still had anisocoria, but less dramatically. When trying to bite, the owl now could snap down on what she aimed at—caregivers beware! The drooping wing had been wrapped until now, but that was no longer needed.

A few days later, the owl was moved to a shady, quiet, small aviary to allow more space and peace for recovery. The owl immediately went up to the low perches provided and settled in. Medication could be given in the food, and she was left in peace as much as possible. The owl still spun to the left when approached on the first day in the small aviary, but finally stopped for good by day two.

Photo by Guthrum Purdin, DVM

Improvement was gradual. Initially, flight was unusually noisy when taking off. This is a serious problem for owls. They rely on flying almost silently when hunting. Owls have specialized feathers that allow them to fly noiselessly. This enables them to descend on their prey without being detected. For this to work, the wings must be held at the proper angle. As this owl slowly regained normal use and positioning of her wings, flight became stronger and quieter. She initially would tire quickly after being moved to a large, flight training aviary. Staff and volunteers would go out and gently encourage flying, thus building up her strength and endurance.

It took weeks, but her pupils returned to normal. The owl was able to avoid objects placed in the aviary, fly silently, and land normally. But could she see well enough to hunt? During a “live prey test,” the owl swooped down, catching her dinner immediately after staff closed the aviary door. Feeding herself would be no problem; she was ready at last to return home! After nearly two months in care, this Great Horned Owl was returned to where she had originally been found.

When she first arrived, it really looked like the owl wouldn’t make it. Thanks to our dedicated staff and volunteers using their experience and attention to detail, this bird was given every opportunity to improve. Thanks also to the owl herself, for her fierceness and resilience. She’s out there somewhere right now, living wild and free.

A few months ago, Red-tailed Hawk 21-233 arrived at the California Wildlife Center from Malibu with very little history. All the techs in ICU knew at first was that he was injured. What they found on examination was a bird with some wounds on his chest, some broken feathers and, much more concerningly, feet that were in terrible condition. There were multiple deep, painful lesions on the bottoms of the feet, skin and scales dark with infection and necrosis extending out onto the digits towards the talons. Lab tests showed elevated white blood cells, indicating a significant immune response; plus there were parasites living in his GI tract, stealing nutrition from whatever food he was given and damaging the intestinal lining.

Hawks live by the health of their feet. It’s the talons that catch their prey and help protect them against enemies. If a hawk’s feet are too damaged or infected, they can’t survive. What caused 233’s injuries can’t be known for certain, but it’s suspected they may have occurred in a fight with another hawk. During conflict, they may wrestle with each other, grabbing each other’s feet and chests. This would explain the deep cuts and gouges, because hawk talons are sharp and very, very strong. The wounds, whatever caused them, then became infected and the parasites, responding to a weakened immune system, could then proliferate.

Initial critical care treatments were started. By early the next day, 233 was depressed and unable to stand, which is when I first saw him. After examining the bird, despite his then poor condition, I felt he had a reasonable chance to recover and be returned to the wild, so I reviewed and expanded his treatment plan. This would evolve over time, including soaking the feet periodically in a particular veterinary disinfectant (cleaning away a lot of the black, crusty, infected, and dead tissue), foot dressings, antibiotics that were both systemic and could penetrate deep tissues not well supplied by the circulatory system, and medication for pain and inflammation. He was also treated for his GI parasite freeloaders. Patients like this are given nutrition in both liquid and solid form until they’re back to self-feeding.

Red-tailed Hawk during physical therapy,
Photo by Dr. Guthrum Purdin

After several weeks, once the worst of the injuries were resolved, we switched to a once-every-three-days medication to reduce handling. Thus, reducing stress for 233…and for his handlers! Finally, it was aviary time for this tough bird. Flight at first was weak, only getting about 3 feet off the ground on his initial attempt.

Allowed to rest quietly in his new, bigger flight space, after a few days, staff and volunteers would go into the aviary daily to encourage 233 to do his physical therapy, flying from one end of the aviary to the other. This was easy for 233, since wherever people were, he did not want to be. Hawk 233 was wild to the core! Gradually, he flew better and better. A companion, a juvenile Red-tail, was introduced to aviary (they were closely monitored to make sure they got along and would not fight). During PT sessions, 233 easily out flew the youngster.

Then the great day came. On recheck exam, after weeks off meds, his original injuries were all definitely healed and in the past. I spent some time observing 233 in the largest aviary and found he could fly with the best. Just a few days after that, after about 2½ months in care, this memorable hawk was released back into the Malibu sky. What an amazing patient!