Found lying face down along a trail on the Humboldt Bay Wildlife Refuge, this American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus), the secretive cryptically colored cousin to the haughty Herons and elegant Egrets was in rough shape when brought to Humboldt Wildlife Care Center in Bayside. With feathers torn out, puncture wounds, and damaged air sacs (for a quick video tour of avian repsiration, evolved for flight click here ) we were pretty certain the bird had been mauled by a dog.
Fortunately, the Bittern suffered no broken bones. Unfortunately, these birds are very private, and time in captivity is highly stressful for them (it is for all wild animals, but this species especially so.) They often won’t eat. For the first week, we had to “assist feed” our patient, carefully sliding whole fish down their throat. Once the Bittern was stable and able to be moved to a purpose-built outdoor waterfowl aviary, we added live fish to the marsh-like pool and tall reeds for comfort. Immediately, they began to eat all of the live fish we could get. Their condition rapidly improved.
After 18 days in care, the Bittern was ready to go home. Two volunteers (this was only a few days before we changed everything for social-dostancing purposes, including suspending our volunteer program) and our newest staff person, Desiree Vang, took the Bittern back to the Wildlife Refuge for release.
Now just a couple of weeks later, everything at our clinic and in our community and in the world has changed due to Coronavirus Disease 19. Our volunteer and intern programs have been suspended at our facility until social distancing and “shelter in place” orders are lifted. We are at the very start of our hectic wild baby season and how this will be impacted we’ve yet to discover. But even with a skeleton crew and reduced resources, we are still here, still open, and in need of your support more than ever… Please contribute something… all donations big and small make a huge difference for our wild neighbors. Thank you for helping us during these difficult times.
