If ever there was a bird that looked in need of a helping hand, it might be the black-crowned night-heron.
The heron, a hulking, round shouldered, shore bird with a passing resemblance to an avian version of Alfred Hitchcock, looks neither at home in the tree tops nor on the ground. None of that, however, stops people from loving them. Oakland even selected the heron as its “official” bird.
At this time of year, the herons especially need assistance as dozens of recently hatched chicks fall or are pushed from their nests, landing on concrete 20 to 30 feet below. If they survive the fall — and a good many do — they are subject to urban dangers including passing cars and curious dogs.
The number of fallen birds is so significant that Oakland Zoo has formed a Heron Rescue Team that patrols the areas of Oakland where the large birds and snowy egrets roost, looking for fallen birds and, sadly, gently picking up the bodies of those that didn’t survive.
The origin of the team goes back to 2015 when residents, alarmed by the number of dead herons and snowy egrets littering the streets, contacted Golden Gate Audubon, which pulled together a team of volunteers.
The patrols stopped the past two years because of COVID, but in late February — and with guaranteed funding for the next three years — Oakland Zoo took over the main patrols, partnering with Golden Gate Audubon, Fairfield’s International Bird Rescue and Veterinary Emergency Group. Rescued birds are taken to the zoo for care and treatment before being sent to Fairfield for rehabilitation and eventual release.
The Heron Rescue Team consists of a small crew from the zoo who walk a several-block area of Oakland near Chinatown and Lake Merritt twice a day. They also distribute flyers with information on the project, enlisting the neighborhood’s help in reporting injured birds.
On Tuesday morning, Noelle Dohlin, leader of the Heron Rescue Team, was joined on patrol by Marisa Riordan, a zoo elephant keeper who volunteers with the team, and Adam Zuby, another team member. The herons and egrets are easy to spot, thanks to the frequent deluge of bird poo dropping to the street below and the raspy woc-a-woc calls of the herons.
Herons and egrets live in colonies, says Colleen Kinzley, vice president of Animal Care, Conservation and Research at Oakland Zoo, and head of the Heron Rescue Team. They share roost trees, called rookeries, with as many as a dozen nests in each tree.
The birds prefer the ficus trees that tower above streets and sidewalks, building their nests in the very tops. This practice can prove deadly, however, as many birds have been killed by inattentive tree trimmers or by the sudden felling of trees in wind storms.
Heron and egrets falling from their nests are a common occurrence in both wild and urban settings, Kinzley says. When the chicks are 3 to 4 weeks old, she says, they become more mobile in the nest, hopping out onto limbs as they begin to explore the world around them, a perilous stroll, to be sure. Sometimes, the siblings get into squabbles, push turns to shove and out a bird goes.
The problem in an urban environment is what lies beneath the trees.
“Instead of having natural vegetation to protect them, cushion their fall and maybe allow them to climb back in the tree,” Kinzley says, “they land on concrete sidewalks and roads, and they are immediately in danger.”
As the birds are not yet able to fly, there is no way for them to get back into the nest, Kinzley says, and the parents won’t risk spending time on the ground to feed and care for them.
Oakland’s Lake Merritt neighborhood is an ideal location for the rookeries. The adults can fly to the lake to hunt for fish, and sidewalk trees provide good homes. Like many birds living in an urban setting, the night-herons have also learned to eat from garbage cans, so food is always plentiful.
“But this is not nature running its course,” Kinzley says. “It’s animals struggling to live in a human environment.”
The patrols look for several things besides the obvious young bird in distress, Dohlin says. They look for eggshells, an indication that chicks are hatching, and they check for shell condition, which can yield clues on the nest and chicks’ health.
As the patrols walk around and below the trees, they also look under parked cars, in nearby shrubs and other hidden areas where a chick might seek shelter and concealment.
On Tuesday’s morning patrol, two dead chicks were found lying still and broken on the sidewalk. One was practically mummified and may have died some time ago before, perhaps, being blown from a nest by Monday’s storm. The second probably died the night before. It was just starting to get feathers and was likely only a couple of weeks old.
Dohlin and Riordan carefully picked the chicks up in plastic bags and placed them almost reverently in a lidded bucket. The bodies will be returned to zoo, where biologists will look for clues to how they died.
Dohlin says they’ve identified 151 active nests, and expect the rescue efforts will pick up considerably in the weeks to come.
Kinzley says in the past, the Audubon volunteers have rescued about 70 chicks a year.
“We will be looking every day,” she says.
If you see an injured black-crowned night-heron or snowy egret, contact the Heron Rescue Team at 510-703-8986, or visit its website at oaklandzoo.org to help or learn more about the birds and the rescue team.
Source: www.mercurynews.com