Wild Bird Fund

04/22/2025

Don’t miss this excellent documentary tonight about peregrine falcons in NYC. WBF is featured!

04/22/2025

Nobody puts baby in a berry box.🫐

Volume up for full squeak power!🔉

🎥: Phyllis Tseng

04/21/2025

We’re ALL about sapsuckers these days, and not just because we’re dazzled by their shiny scarlet caps. Since the end of March, we’ve admitted 37 of these woodpeckers. THIRTY-SEVEN! An astonishing increase. During the same period last year, we received just 10. All of these beautiful birds are victims of window collisions.

It's important to remember that the number of birds rescued is a small fraction of those killed in collisions, and many brought to the clinic are too injured to save. But we are doing all we can to rehabilitate the ones in our care and return them to the wild.

If you find a yellow-bellied sapsucker, or any other bird on the sidewalk, please gently pick it up and place it in a paper bag (wear gloves, use a cloth or simply wash your hands after). Close the bag and bring the bird to WBF or a wildlife rehabber near you.

And report all dead and injured birds to dbird.org. It’s helpful to know where these collisions are occuring. See our previous post for more info about rescuing window-collision victims.

Support a sapsucker! Your donations make this work possible. bit.ly/wbfdonate

📷: Lily Lugo

04/19/2025

"There's a bird sitting on the sidewalk...it's not moving."

Springtime means you're likely to encounter this sad situation: a small bird sitting or lying stunned on the sidewalk. These tiny (and some not so tiny) birds are all victims of window collisions, and yes, they need your help! 🚑

When a bird survives a window collision, it can’t move for minutes or hours. During that time, it could be stepped on, run over or preyed on. But luckily you, kind bystander, are on the case! You can be a bird’s hero with a few simple steps:

* Approach the bird slowly to avoid flushing it back into the glass.
* Hover your hands over the bird, then quickly but gently grab it.
* Place the bird into a paper bag — or any small, ventilated container you have handy. Close the container! The bird might become active and try to escape, but that doesn’t mean it’s OK. It likely has injuries you can’t see, including concussion, which will get worse over time.
* Bring the bird to WBF or a wildlife rehabber near you (find one using ahnow.org). If you can’t transport to us right away, that’s OK. Keep the bird safely contained with you and contact [email protected] to request help from a volunteer transporter.
* Please report dead or injured birds to dbird.org.

Why is this happening?!

During spring migration, millions of birds who've spent the winter in southern habitats are returning north to breed. They’re traveling ancient flyways that our cities have now punctured with bright lights. Like moths, they’re drawn to light and then disoriented and confused by the walls of our buildings. Although NYC offers good habitat for migrating songbirds, that habitat is surrounded and intersected by reflective glass. A bird flies into a window because, to the bird, that window looks like trees or sky.

Most collision victims die on impact, but a few survive and might recover if they can be rescued. We’re able to release hundreds every year to continue their migration thanks to caring rescuers.

*Pro tip: Carry small paper bags with you.*

And support your local wildlife rehabbers! (donate: bit.ly/wbfdonate)

📷: Calista McRae

04/17/2025

This American kestrel is hanging in there after a day in care with us. He arrived weak, emaciated and unable to stand, apparently from a trauma such as a window collision, but there is clearly an underlying cause.

We’ve been providing oxygen and fluids, and he’s taking liquid feedings. He’s occasionally standing, and we hope to see more of that as he becomes more stable.

Your donations make this work possible. Please consider helping this kestrel and all our many patients: bit.ly/wbfdonate

📷: Cynthia Vasquez

04/16/2025

“This is a bird who’s very capable. I think she will find a way,” said Rita McMahon, director of the Wild Bird Fund, a group that previously tried to help Rosie leave the city for greener pastures.

“We don’t want to cause her death by trying to catch her … She’s quite cool and collected as long as she’s not being flushed someplace.”

The best thing to do is leave Rosie alone, McMahon explained, theorizing she will likely head back to Roosevelt Island on her own accord when she realizes there’s a shortage of food and water available to her in Midtown — not to mention the total lack of Toms.

The h***y bird’s quest for love is causing nothing but chaos in Midtown East.

04/12/2025

This gorgeous girl was found tangled in netting at a golf course on Staten Island. She came in emaciated, with some injuries from the net, but alert and strong. We started her on fluids and then a liquid diet, according to our emaciation protocol, and we’re treating her for some intestinal parasites. She’s perked up a lot and is giving us evidence of what a powerful adult hawk she was before she got into trouble — and will be again!

We treat all red-tailed hawks for potential rodenticide poisoning, but fortunately she shows no symptoms.

Your donations make this work possible! Please consider helping this hawk (named Hunt) and all our many patients by donating: bit.ly/wbfdonate

04/10/2025

We will treasure this! We're so grateful to the students at Riverdale and PS49, and to Drawing for the Planet for including us in this wonderful wildlife education project.

04/09/2025

While most songbirds are still warming up for the breeding season, the mourning doves are already on it like a bonnet. They’re fledging their first babies of the season and thinking about more. We’ve admitted five this month!

This little fledgling, named Chandler, was found alone, huddled against a wall. A dove this age would normally be OK out of the nest, but this bird was clearly unwell. An exam revealed a small wound and some bad poops. Medication and care should do the trick.

📷: Lily Lugo

04/07/2025

Our clinic color palette is slowly starting to change, with a distinct trend toward sunny YELLOW — hints of the brilliant parade to come from the south.

This is a pine warbler, one of the earliest spring warbler migrants. They winter in the southern U.S., so they don’t have as far to come as many of their bright cousins, who are currently en route from Central and South America. No matter how far they’ve come, if they arrive at the clinic, it’s because of window collisions.

These birds have all survived a fall migration, a long fruitful winter and a migration north only to be stopped by an unprotected window here in the city. What a shame. We can do so much better!

Window collisions are preventable. Turning out lights at night and adding well-spaced markings to the outside of windows are the simple solutions. If you live or work in a building that regularly kills birds, please say something! Talk to the management. There are many good products and design solutions. Bird-friendly windows are beautiful windows.

And please consider donating to help us care for all these injured migratory birds: bit.ly/wbfdonate. Your donations make this work possible.

📷: Phyllis Tseng

04/04/2025

It’s back to creeping and walking up trees for two of our window collision patients. How beautiful is it to watch a brown creeper and a yellow-bellied sapsucker return to the wild?

Both of these birds were injured during window collisions last week, and they were lucky enough to be rescued and receive care.

Window collisions are preventable! Turning out lights at night and adding visible markings to the outside of windows are the simple solutions. If you live or work in a building that regularly kills birds, please say something! Talk to the management. There are many good products and design solutions. Bird-friendly windows are beautiful windows.

Happy everyone!

04/03/2025

These two mockingbirds signed up for our extended stay plan as soon as they arrived with broken and frayed flight feathers. They were found discarded in a box, we were told. Someone must have taken them from the wild when they were young and raised them in poor conditions with an insufficient diet. And then they tossed them out.

We plucked the damaged feathers under anesthesia and performed X-rays to ensure they had no metabolic bone disease (common among birds raised by hand). The feathers are growing back, and they’re receiving supplements to help improve their overall feather quality and well-being.

We’re trying to wild them up by keeping our distance to the extent possible and playing mockingbird calls. Over time, we hope they’ll be releasable. Someone deprived these birds of a wild life, but we are determined to give them a chance to live as they were meant to.

📷: Lily Lugo

04/01/2025

The winds of spring blow curiouser and curiouser! At first we thought this miniature goose might be a cackling goose, but nope! She's actually an astonishingly small Canada goose. And an adult too!

Weighing a mere 400g (closer to a pigeon than a normal 4kg Canada goose), Lilligoosian is a bit on the thin side but otherwise healthy.

This munchkin was rescued from a backyard in Queens, where she was found paddling around in a birdbath, fending off attacks from two blue jays and a robin. Fortunately, she sustained no injuries.

We'll be looking for a safe release spot where this cutie can stretch her very small wings and not be bullied by bigger geese (or blue jays). If you've spotted any other teeny goose flocks in the area, please let us know.

03/31/2025

It’s that time of year when Virginia rails begin turning up in the oddest places around Manhattan. Although marsh birds, they pass through the city during migration. Confused by the lights and the reflective surfaces of so much glass, they collide with windows or simply get trapped somewhere.

This one has neurological symptoms consistent with a collision, so we’re providing a quiet, dark place to recover, as well as anti-inflammatory medication. Thanks to for the rescue!

📷: Phyllis Tseng

03/31/2025

Farewell and happy trails to Pronto, our blue jay guest of a month! This gorgeous blue fellow was found puffed up under a park bench. Trauma from a window collision was the likely cause. Tests also showed internal parasites and a bacterial infection.

Pronto was slow to recover initially, unable to perch well and very quiet. But with treatment, he began to improve. By the end, he was having a blast chasing crickets (slide 2) and finally was released to join his clamorous colleagues in the neighborhood.

📷: Lily Lugo, Jenny Lee Mitchell

03/29/2025

The first big wave of songbird migrants has been arriving in NYC this week, with last night bringing in loads of song sparrows, kinglets, juncos and these gorginos, yellow-bellied sapsuckers. We received a pair of sapsuckers today, both victims of window collisions.

With spring migration afoot, it’s a great time to NOT clean your windows. All that winter grime is great at preventing bird collisions. Just take window washing right off your spring cleaning list and use that extra time to get out and look at birds. If you must clean them, consider adding a pattern to the external surface, such as small dots or stripes (there are many great products). You can DIY with tempera paint that will stay on through the season but wash off easily later.

📷: Phyllis Tseng

03/27/2025

This handsome fellow is an Eastern box turtle, at least 17 years old! He’d been living in captivity all of that time. Unfortunately, an inappropriate diet and habitat have caused his beak to be overgrown, along with his nails. He’s also developed sores on his feet, plus shell and skin problems associated with vitamin deficiency.

We’re sure his keepers meant well for him and likely didn’t know that this turtle is a native species taken illegally from the wild. We’re so glad they brought him to us so that now he can receive the nutrition and care he needs.

He’s a charmer! And he’s enjoying his veggies, epsom salt soaks, dirt substrate and UVB lamp. We’re slowly trimming his nails, and today he went off to the vet for a beak trim. Hopefully he’ll be feeling a lot stronger and healthier for his next 17 years.

Please consider donating to help The Alchemist here, our other turtle residents and so many birds in our care! bit.ly/wbfdonate

📷: Michelle Talich, Rachel Frank

03/25/2025

As soon as the weather clears up, it’s time for a pigeon release! Some of these kids have been with us since early January, others only a couple of weeks. None would have made it without the kindness of ALL their rescuers, who brought these sick and injured birds to us for care, and without the incredible dedication of our pigeon staff and volunteers.

Best of luck out there, Cetoddle, Doom Scroll, Mac, Torkoal, Tiara, Ham, Quagsire, Feraligatr, Bellsprout, Abra, Gram, Miami, Xerjoff, Vaporeon, Tory, Brody, Ariados, Elkhorn, Peanut, Oinkster, Paramore, Grotle, Cougar and Tangela! We’re rooting for you.

🎥: Avy Aubin