Wild Bird Fund

07/01/2025

DUCKLINGS! So. Many. Ducklings.
Ducklings ducklings ducklings ducklings!

Every group of ducklings that arrives at the clinic is assigned a letter. We’re now up to G! Groups A and B have been released, but we still have an in-house duckling population of 32 from 5 families, all mallards. The logistics of their separate housing, feeding and swim times are rather complicated, but fortunately our waterfowl team are well up to the task.

If you’d like to help us feed all these many ducklings, please visit bit.ly/wbfdonate 🐤🐤🐤

🎥: Raina Bien, Rachel Frank

06/28/2025

We spent a brief but memorable couple of days in the company of this fledgling peregrine, who was found on the street near the Brooklyn Bridge. This healthy fledgling likely would have been fine after a few days, but the hazards for an endangered raptor under those circumstances are too great.

Already very strong and defensive, this falcon will no doubt have a long, fruitful career as a hunter. He’s now in the capable hands of The Raptor Trust, who will raise him the rest of the way and work with the NYS DEC on release.

Baby season is now in FULL THROTTLE here. Please consider donating to help us care for all these precious kids: bit.ly/wbfdonate

📷: Terra Tirapelli

06/27/2025

Our first nestling gull of the summer! 🥹

This big fuzzy baby is a herring gull. These gulls commonly nest on roofs throughout the city, so it’s not unusual to find their fledglings in awkward places around town, but this nestling came down way too early. Named Speckle, he’s wobbly on his feet but is a great eater. We hope to have him up and around soon!

This baby was one of 113 patients we admitted on Wednesday! That was a new record until yesterday when we admitted another 116. Most of these are nestlings and fledglings. Our nurseries are full! Can you help?

Please donate at bit.ly/wbfdonate 💕

🎥: Terra Tirapelli

06/25/2025

“I like New York in June. How about you?” — Runaway, our unidentified softshell turtle, keeping it cool and oblivious to our suffering 🥵

Our softshell guest is riding out this 100-degree weather in his happy place beneath the water, as he was meant to do. Rescued from a street in the East Village, where he’d been dumped, this aquatic turtle (likely raised for food) arrived with wounds and sores on both sides of his shell, and scrapes on his legs. We’ve been treating the wounds and providing lots of supportive care. The result is that he’s started eating on his own (superworms!) and the wounds are healing well.

We’ll be finding Runaway a forever home once he’s fully recovered.

Stay hydrated everyone! We’re almost through this.

🎥: Rachel Frank

06/23/2025

“Please pick me up!”

During this heatwave, it’s so important that an injured or sick bird get rescued right away. If you see a bird in trouble — sitting on the sidewalk, huddled against a wall — please don’t walk on by, hoping someone else will help. As long as the bird is a pigeon or smaller, simply pick it up and place it into a paper bag, ventilated box or whatever you happen to have handy. For safety, wear gloves, use a cloth or simply wash your hands thoroughly afterward.

Then bring the bird to WBF or a wildlife rehabber near you (find one using ahnow.org).

In NYC, if you need help transporting, you can email [email protected] to see if a volunteer can help. But please contain the bird first. It could take hours for a volunteer to get there. Keep the bird in a cool, dark, safe space INSIDE while waiting for help transporting.

And finally, please do not provide any food or water. Never put water in a bird’s mouth or pour water onto the bird. This is something people tend to do in the heat, but it’s not helpful and can even be fatal.

Just look at this precious and precocious squeaker, who was out of her nest much too early! After two attempts to locate her based on a report, a rescuer finally found her hiding beneath cardboard that had been put out for recycling. She wouldn’t have survived there long. What a relief that she’s now safe and being cared for. 💕

06/22/2025

Last month’s Flocktail Party was a wild night of good friends and goodwill in a gorgeous mansion overlooking Central Park. Food and drink, art and music, and a red carpet brimming fabulous bird-themed looks. What’s better?

It’s an immense pleasure to see our community come together to celebrate our local wildlife and support our work to help them. We are grateful to all who attended, donated, purchased auction items or volunteered generously of their time and talents — and talons!

A shout-out to our warm hosts at the Ukrainian Institute of America, who made all feel welcome.

Delicious vegetarian and vegan cuisine: Elegant Affairs
AV: Adam Corrigan
Emcee: L.J. Ganser

We'd like to specially call out our Benefactors Bruce Baughman, David Lei, Anne Stringfield and Alex Timbers.

And:
Special guest: Bill Irwin
Honoree: Chris Allieri

We are so grateful for the:
Band: Jenny Lee Mitchell (clarinet, vocals), David Gibson (trombone), Kiku Collins (trumpet), Aldo Perez (guitar)
Photography: Belathée Photography
Raptor ambassadors: Tenafly Nature Center
Flocktail film: Michael Elliott
Invitation design: Carisa Swenson
Flowers: Ze-Ze's Flowers
Makeup: Deborah Altizio

Liquor sponsor: El Buho Mezcal
Beer sponsor: Allagash Brewing Company

All who donated auction items, live and online!

Thank you to our Nest Builders Christina Caragine, Gail Clark, Deborah Plachta & Alan Diner, George & Rachelle Fan, Amanda Parsels, Rafael J. Schnitzler and Rebecca Simmons

An extended round of applause for gala director extraordinaire Cameron King and our gala committee Chris Duran, Catherine Quayle and Joanna Lisanti.

And volunteers: Joseph Martinez, Amanda Clark, Kevin Kinsella and Ruth Hochberg

THANK YOU ALL!
(If we accidentally omitted you, we’re sorry! Please let us know.)
All photos courtesy of Belathee Photography. Attendees will receive a link to more photos.

06/20/2025

It’s Feed-a-Friend Friday! You wouldn’t think that mockingbirds knew how to share, but these fledglings demonstrate otherwise. They’ll be fierce rivals as adults, but for now, insects for all!

Why is this happening? One guess is that the instinct to feed a gaping bird is very strong and develops quite young. We’ve seen this behavior occasionally in other species.

This is your reminder to invite a friend out to lunch. Or buy lunch for a fledgling by donating to WBF! bit.ly/wbfdonate

🎥: Lily Lugo

06/19/2025

When questioned about the mess, some of the American kestrels had better alibis than others.

These are a mere 9 of the 29 kestrel fledglings we’ve admitted so far this season. Meanwhile, raptor fledgefest rages on!

We send a huge shoutout to our friends at The Raptor Trust, who host the ultimate raptor rave over at their place, generously taking on the longer-term care of our kestrels.

📷: Michelle Talich

06/17/2025

From the Before They Were Famous files, this is Peridot, current fledgling American crow, future skymaster and hawkterrorizer. This youngster left the nest too soon for reasons unknown, along with her sibling, who sadly died on site before rescue.

She’s doing well in care, learning to eat a wide variety of foods (eggs = big fave), but she really needs some conspecific companionship, aka amigos. We’ll need to transfer her soon if we don’t admit another fledgling crow.

Would you like to help us care for her and all our future flyers? Please visit bit.ly/wbfdonate to donate.💙

📷: Stephanie Wood

06/16/2025

We're so proud of our very own "undercover insider" Miriam Abrahams for being crowned Top Pigeon on Saturday! The competition was impressive too, and the crowd was impeck-ably dressed.

Thousands of people gathered on the High Line on Saturday for Pigeon Fest, inspired by an artist’s sculpture and an appreciation for the city’s most resilient birds.

06/15/2025

Pigeons are famously city-tough, adaptable, resilient and all those words we New Yorkers like to apply to ourselves. But their Achilles toe is string or hair. Because pigeons are walkers (like us), stringy bits get tangled around their toes. The more they walk, the tighter the string gets. It digs into the flesh, causing lacerations, infection and eventually necrosis. In the best cases, the toes “self-amputate” and the wounds heal. These determined birds just keep on going with fewer toes.

A member of our staff picked up this stringfoot pigeon in Astor Place. Because the string was deeply embedded, we put the bird under anesthesia to remove the string, then provided pain medication and antibiotics. This bird, named Sandaconda, is feeling much better after nearly a month in care.

If you find a stringfoot pigeon, and are able to catch it, it’s fine to remove the string yourself as long as it’s loose. If the string is wrapped tightly, please bring the bird to WBF or a wildlife rehabber near you (ahnow.org) for surgical removal. Otherwise, you can cause the bird severe pain and even hemorrhaging.

ICYMI, read Ian Frazier’s article about stringerfoot (featuring WBF) in The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/05/12/pity-the-barefoot-pigeon

Your donations save a lot of pigeon feet! bit.ly/wbfdonate

📷: Michael Cavaliere

06/13/2025

🎉Happy Pigeon Appreciation Day🎉— a day traditionally celebrated with poetry, interpretive dances and tossing of seeds. In modern times, these practices have fallen away, but here at the Wild Bird Fund, we keep the old ways alive.

We’re pleased that hundreds of others will be joining us in these ancient rituals tomorrow at Pigeon Fest on the High Line! If you’re there, stop on by our table. We’ll have some special guests, great merch, kids’ activities and pigeon tales of yore.

Wherever you are, perhaps just take a moment to greet a pigeon. They are gentle souls simply working hard at the business of being pigeons. 💕