Wildlife Center of North Georgia

02/11/2025

Northern Cardinals often start courtship displays in January and February. Males incorporate songs and dance moves to attract their mate, but females will sometimes engage in courtship display too!

📷: Walter Allmandinger

02/04/2025

We are requesting healing energy for this beautiful Robin, admitted last evening after a vehicle collision in Marietta. In these types of cases, the first few days are critical because of the possibility of internal injuries. So any good vibes are welcome. 🙏🏻❤️‍🩹

02/03/2025

Miss Ruby Rose has been with us since late August of 2024 because the fall from her window collision caused pelvic trauma and leg paralysis. We’ve been working with her in physical therapy and she recently graduated to a more challenging environment designed to improve strength and coordination. Up until mid-December she was unable to perch, so we are tickled she has started perching and is able to keep her balance. You may notice she does have some damage on the ends of her feathers as a result of using her wings and tail to navigate her environment. The last big obstacle was that she was unable to use her tail for balance, so we had to perform special physical therapy to get those nerves activated again. We appreciate continued healing energy for this sweet girl! 🐦‍⬛❤️‍🩹🙏🏻

01/30/2025

Usually wintering in the tropics, this particular Wood Thrush has been spending winter with us. He was admitted October 14, 2024 after an encounter with a free-roaming cat. He suffered pelvic trauma and lost many of his tail feathers in the incident. Treatment with antibiotics prevented him from getting a deadly infection from his wounds, but his pelvic trauma took a bit longer to resolve and he had problems perching and standing. He was still in the early stage of recovery when fall migration ended, so he will be with us until spring migration brings the Wood Thrushes north again. He is now standing and perching, and is anxiously awaiting spring. ❤️‍🩹

01/29/2025

This is good news! Let’s hope other businesses follow.

🎉The power of partnerships is in full effect for efforts to !🎉

Our USFWS Director Martha Williams, recently visited the McCormick Place Lakeside Center in Chicago. Not only have they voluntarily implemented a “curtains-closed-by-default” policy at the event center (which prevents light from escaping), they also installed nearly 120,000 square feet of a 2” x 2” dot pattern on their windows (developed by Feather Friendly), making nearly 2 football fields of glass bird-friendly!

Treating glass and addressing nighttime light pollution are two of the primary ways we can prevent bird collisions at our homes, schools, and buildings!🪟⭐️🌃

Learn more: https://www.fws.gov/story/celebrating-successes-reducing-bird-collisions

📷USFWS Director Martha Williams talks with partners at the McCormick Place in Chicago about the dot pattern applied to windows to reduce bird collisions.
Credit: Brian Smith/USFWS

01/29/2025

With all the recent news about HPAI in Georgia, this is very helpful information. 

01/28/2025

Our social feed has been a little quiet lately, because we have been waiting for the extremely cold weather to pass so we could release some of our recovered patients. This past Sunday we released three patients:
A male Purple Finch that was dropped off at a local vet clinic, grounded for an unknown reason.
A Pine Warbler that was admitted in late November after the homeowner found her in their yard.
A Northern Cardinal that suffered a concussion from a window collision two weeks earlier (no video available).
We want to thank the rescuers who got these birds to us quickly.
🙏🏻🐦‍⬛❤️‍🩹

01/13/2025

The best part of rehabilitating songbirds is when we get to release them. During the busier months when baby season begins in April, all the way through the summer, it is very hard for me to get away to do offsite releases of adult birds so volunteers usually assist with those. Although we can release most baby birds outside the center, (depending on species), most adult birds need to be released back in their territories and with their families or with flocks of the same species. During wintertime, I get the honor of taking birds out to various locations to set them free after they’ve recovered.

This Cedar Waxwing was admitted on December 29 after a window collision. With anti-inflammatory treatment, minor wound care and rest, she made a full recovery. My heart was filled with joy today to be able to release her. ❤️❤️‍🩹

01/12/2025

This is wonderful news!

🐦‍⬛ A Record-Breaking 95% Reduction in Bird Collisions! 🐦‍⬛

It’s official: McCormick Place has gone from being a collision hotspot to a global leader in bird-safe design, thanks to our markers.

To be precise, there has been a 95% reduction in bird collisions compared to previous years!

“The 18 deaths at Lakeside Center this fall compare with 1,280 in fall 2023 and 771 in fall 2022.” - Dave Willard, Field Museum Ornithologist.

Why is this critical?

➡️ From 1,280 fatalities to just 18 in one year means a significant rise in successful migrations
➡️ This is a game-changing milestone for urban wildlife conservation.

What’s next? This project has now become a benchmark in bird collision mitigation, and many large buildings are now lining up to become bird-safe.

Several have even asked us for the “same thing that you used for McCormick”, which, as you might already have guessed, is our Large-scale Pro Markers!

This is not the time to rest on laurels, however. We are preparing ourselves to treat every bit of glass that exists.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

01/12/2025

Domestic cats take an almost unfathomable toll on birds, killing an estimated 2.4 billion annually in the United States alone.

This year, help birds by taking the pledge to keep your cat indoors! 🏠 Keeping domestic cats indoors protects birds while also leading to a longer, healthier life for your beloved pet. 😻

❄️The cold temperatures of winter signal a great time to transition cats into a cozy indoor lifestyle. While you’re at it, set a goal to find fun ways for your cat to experience the outdoors without putting birds (or themselves) at risk, like exploring on a harness or in an enclosure!

Stand up and be counted among the many current and future cat owners doing their part to protect cats and birds. Take the Pledge to Keep Cats Safely Contained. 👉 https://act.abcbirds.org/a/take-action-cats-pledge?utm_campaign=soc_fb_011225.

📸 Major Gift Officer Elizabeth Vaccaro's cats, Mister Bear and Kiwi, enjoy tv enrichment time as part of their indoor lifestyle.

01/10/2025

Rest in Peace, President Carter.

01/07/2025

Great opportunity for a local bird walk! 🐦‍⬛

Save the date!! We are hosting our 1st Ever Bird Walk on 1/25 at 7:30a.m. We will meet at Woofstock Park and walk along the boardwalk. Wear comfortable shoes and don’t forget your binoculars! If you want to join us please let us know you are coming by responding to this post or calling the store (770-928-3014). We hope to see you there!

01/06/2025

01/05/2025

Happy National Bird Day! We are celebrating all the wonderful things birds bring to our lives and the reasons they’re so important for our environment:

1. Their song and beauty
2. Natural insect/pest control (birds consume an estimated 400 million tons of insects each year)
3. Seed dispersal
4. Pollination (Hummingbirds, etc)
5. Environmental cleanup/scavenging (Vultures & Crows)
6. Rodent/small mammal population control (Hawks & Owls, etc)
7. Predictors of environmental changes

01/03/2025

This Brown Thrasher is a ground foraging bird. To thrive in the wild, he needs to be able to use both feet. He was admitted on December 13th after an encounter with four small dogs. He arrived unable to stand, missing all of his tail feathers and some wing feathers, and having a few broken toes on his right foot, so badly injured that the toes bent backwards underneath his leg when he tried to stand.
He was very lucky he did not suffer any life-threatening internal injuries. We applied a snowshoe splint to his right foot and kept that on for about two weeks. We removed the splint on Jan 1st and we were excited to see that the foot had healed and he was able to use his toes properly to perch.
He will be with us for several weeks until his tail feathers regrow, but the worst is over for this handsome fellow. ❤️‍🩹🐦‍⬛

Thank you to the rescuer for getting him to us quickly.

01/01/2025

Happy New Year! We are very excited to be able to welcome 2025 by releasing two of our window collision patients.
This female Purple Finch collided with a window and suffered a concussion, and was released after 6 days of care. The rescuers assisted with the release so she could rejoin her flock, and she immediately found her friends. ❤️

This handsome Yellow-bellied Sapsucker collided with a window on December 12th, suffering a concussion and a soft tissue injury in his shoulder. He’s a very lucky guy!

We are so happy both of these birds get to start the new year with a second chance at life. ❤️‍🩹