 Welcome to Healthy Planet, a show for people who care about their health and the health of our planet on the ThinkTech Live Streaming Network series. I'm your host, Dr. Grace O'Neill. Joining me today is Mariah and Raja from the Wild Bird Rehab Haven. Today we're gonna talk about Wild Bird Rehab. So Raja, tell us about the Wild Bird Rehab Haven. Well, I'll be glad to do that, but may I first give any viewers a great big shocker by showing. Okay, so since we are in Hawaii, that's a great big shocker for you. And furthermore, it's being given by my dog, Daku. And this dog is here because I wanted to kind of like memorialize him. This is the front side of my dog, Daku, who passed away last year on June 22, at the age of 17 years and two days. Oh, good for him. Yeah, and then can we see number three? This is a more funny view of Daku, which may very well become my Facebook image or something. Yeah, so so much for my wonderful dog, Daku. Yeah, so to answer your question, Grace, Wild Bird Rehab Haven is a network of volunteers. The volunteers themselves have been trying to rehab, rescue and help birds probably for decades, but the organization itself came into existence. It will be 20 years old next November, that is November, 2020, yeah. And who started the organization? Oh, I am not completely sure of that. There's been actually for decades or probably as long as human beings have existed, people have been, some of them have been trying to help birds. So I happen to know for a fact that even before 2003, many of the rehabbers who are now in Wild Bird Rehab Haven were active and doing things for birds. I have, I hear that it might be someone called Linda Levine who may have been one of the formal founders of Wild Bird Rehab Haven in the year 2003. So how did they learn how to rehab these birds? Was it just trial and error or did they learn from another organization that does this on the mainland? No, all of us are completely volunteers. So there is no, probably many of these rehabbers have been trying to help birds and so on probably from the time when they were kids or teenagers or whatever it may be. So much of it would be by trial and error, but you care, you don't feel happy, the bird doesn't do well and so on. So people will try to learn more and more about it. So there are many resources available online including on our own website, which I'll show you a little later. And of course, you get advice from more experienced rehabbers and some of these folks literally have been doing this for 30, 40 years and they even have some medical or surgical skills. So they are very experienced. So do you have any veterinarians associated with your organization or is just purely by the love of birds that people are doing this? Well, you will soon see when we look at details on our Wild Bird Rehab Haven website, there are some kinds of simple bird care that we can do without too much difficulty with a little bit of practice, but there are more advanced things that people should not be tickering with because you're taking rest with the life and health of a bird. So there are several avian veterinarians on the island, one of the best ones, which we, well, one of the largest ones and who frequently get birds referred to them is called feather and fur. It's in Kailua and they are very good with birds. There are a number of others. There is Aloha Animal Hospital in Kahala and there are others as well. But those folks are not a part of Wild Bird Rehab Haven. Sometimes or frequently we may have to refer birds to them. In general, they won't do things for free because they have to survive. But yes, these are the veterinarian. There are many others who help us. So the kind of birds that people are rehabbing are different, right? There's some birds that are injured, what are common injuries that you find and then there's some also bird babies and I guess you call them fledglings that are abandoned for whatever reason or their mother dies. So what kind of problems do you see that cause the bird to be in distress? Well, the most common thing that happens is that people go out for a walk or they're somewhere, they're shopping, they do something. They see a bird sitting on the sidewalk or even at the side of the road and not flying away or trying to escape even if you approach it. Then some people feel bad and they want to know what's going on. The most common cases one will find, especially during the months of roughly May through October or so or May through September or so are fledgling birds. Those are birds that have left their nest and they are learning how to fly but they are not yet strong flies. So it's very normal for birds to spend a couple of weeks on the ground. They are usually smart enough to hide in shrubbery or in places where they're not so easy to find. The parent birds will still be around and feeding them and at night they will hide in the shrubbery or fly up to a low branch or something. So those are fledglings. People often find those and think that bird needs help. It may or may not need help. We have a very nice flow chart that I can show you later. That's one example of how people find birds. Other cases are when a bird has flown into a glass window, for example, or being hit by a car, then it will be dazed. It may even have broken wing or broken leg or a broken neck. So people find those very often. And sometimes people are pruning a tree, cutting down something and then there are birds in there that cannot even fly yet and then they fall to the ground and people are distressed and they report them. So these are the kind of things that often happen. There are many, many other ways in which people can find birds. So how do you handle a bird that's wild? Is it not advisable to touch them with your bare hands? Can we transmit germs to them like that? Well, that's a good question. I think people are more generally worried about the possibility of the bird giving something to you than we giving something to the bird because there is something called bird flu, for instance, which you have probably heard of. So there is a whole protocol for what you need to do in Hawaii if you find birds. For example, native species of all kinds, as well as sea birds are completely no-go for amateur rehabbers. What you need to do if you find native species of Hawaii or a sea bird is you could take it either to feather and fur who is authorized to receive such birds or you could take it to something like James Capbell Wildlife Refuge that's over by Kahuku or somewhere and they will take those kind of birds. Yeah, so whereas wild bird rehab haven and its volunteers are authorized and what we do try to help and rehab are introduced birds. Yeah, non-migratory, non-sea birds, non-native Hawaiian birds are the ones that we will try to help and rehab. Other kinds of birds we need to hand them over to feather and fur or Hawaii Wildlife Refuge. I forget the name, they're on the big island or the Capbell Wild Bird Refuge or something that's by Kahuku and they will take it on from there. So in regards to native versus introduced species can you go over, for people who don't know what species have been introduced I think that would be probably easier than going over the native species. Yeah, so there's a very nice slim book by the Hawaii Audubon Society. I think it's called Birds of Hawaii and it has different sections, birds, sea birds, forest birds, as well as the whole section on introduced and urban birds. So that's a very good way to, it's a slim book, it has lots of pictures, people would enjoy looking at it. I don't know if I answered your question. No, that was a good answer. I think you can also, as far as I understand because I remember I had an injured bird that actually flew into glass and I didn't know what kind of bird it was. It ended up being a dove, but I actually emailed I think the big island, the people on the big island and they were able to tell me, I think maybe you had referred me to them and they were able to identify the bird for me and tell me it was not a native species because I was just hoping somebody could help me with it. So that's what happened with that. So I think you can also email them probably and have them identify it for you if you didn't know. So can you go over some of the most common introduced birds? Well, the fact is if you walk around there in Honolulu or the suburbs, the majority of bird species you will actually see are introduced birds. Yeah, some of the extremely common ones are zebra dogs, pigeons, mountains, red-vented bull bulls, Brazilian cardinals, minors. Yes. You'll see mejiro, you'll see Java sparrows, you'll see something called chestnut, chestnut munia, is that what it's called? A chestnut munia. You'll see finches of various kinds, sparrows, ducks, chickens, peacocks. So virtually all the birds you normally see and easily recognize are introduced birds. Probably the handful of non-introduced species that you can see pretty often are if you go to the seaside you will see a lot of sea birds. And even in urban areas you'll see something called the Manu Oku, a beautiful white bird. If you can easily mistake it for a pigeon, but that's actually the white fairy turn or Manu Oku. Sometimes in the dusk you can see an owl flying. If it's dusk or dawn, maybe it's a pu'eo, though I kind of doubt it. More likely it's a barn owl, which is an introduced species. So the common birds that you'll see are virtually all of them introduced. Let's go to some of the pictures that you have, Raja. Okay. May I ask you to show me the web page of Wild Bird Rehab Behavior? Okay, great. So thank you very much. So that's for those who have found a bird and are wondering what to do with it or for people who are just interested, please go to, this is all one word, wildbirdrehabhaven.org. That's our website. And those extremely cute bird that you see right there on the home page are nestling shama thrushes. You have probably seen them if you have a lot of trees or forested areas near your house. The males have an orangeish brown kind of chest and they look like they're wearing a black tuxedo. Okay. And those birds are actually quite interested and curious about human beings. Like I used to know a person, actually a Zen master, he would have Zen meditation sessions and he actually totally shocked a bunch of people in the audience. He heard a bird outside. He made a similar call and the bird replied to him and this went back. Okay. So you have a beautiful voice and those birds that you just saw were nestlings of the shama thrush, white trumped shama thrush. Okay. So you wanted to look at more pictures, I believe. Yes. Okay. So if you click, I actually like to sidestep that a little bit. If you can go to the link that says caring for birds, caring for birds. Okay. And then if you go to the link that says supporting baby bird, there's a very useful flow chart there that I would like you to look at. Okay. Because I think Grace asked this very same question. You know, if you find a baby bird, what do I do next? Okay. So just like, you know, you go walking in a park or at Waikiki. You see a human child wandering around. It doesn't mean you need to take them away. You know, like leaving the parents nearby and keeping an eye on the baby of the child. Yeah. The same thing with birds, especially fledgedlings. Fledgedlings are birds that already have a good growth of feathers and are spending a couple of weeks, not yet being strong flyers. So they will fly relatively short flights, maybe not very far from the ground. And however, their parents are still feeding them and keeping an eye on them. So here, this beautiful flow chart will show you exactly how to deal with baby birds that you find. Okay. All the way from hatchlings that have no feathers whatsoever. Yeah. To fledgedlings, which are pretty much fully feathered except for their tail. And which might not need your help. Whereas hatchlings and nestlings cannot fly yet. They at the very least need your help to put them back in their nest. Or if you're not able to locate their nest, or if you make a nest for them and their parents don't come back, then they definitely do need help. So that's a very useful flow chart that I would like people to find a baby bird. Okay. Now if we could go back to that same homepage and then go to basic bird care. If you click on baby bird care. Now what you asked for was different kinds of bird pictures. So this tells you a lot of stuff. Okay. So you can read it on your own time. But if you keep going down, there's something called wild bird diets. So this gives you a selection of cute baby pictures. And it even tells you what they are, but this is what they look like when they are fledgedlings or hatchlings or nestlings. Like that's a baby bull bull. Yeah. Yeah. So different kinds of birds. Then you'll find doves. The one that says dove, there are different kinds that are zebra doves, and there are pigeon doves and there are pigeons, which also in some ways behave the same. Okay. You will see some of these birds either are opening their mouths or look as though they could easily open their mouths. The ones with those big yellow flanges to their beaks. Those are gaping birds. Whereas doves of all kinds and pigeons will not open their mouths to be fed. They can either use a straw or a ziplock bag with a hole in it. And they poke their nose into it and get the food rather than you trying to eat that. So those are some of, if you have specific questions about any of the birds in that picture, I could say something about that as well. Can we maybe glance at that picture again? Because there's something that's very, very cute that I'd like to show you. Yeah. Now if you go all the way down to the bottom, you know, I lied. I said there's one picture that's very cute. We already saw the shamakrush nestlings. Next to it is something totally cute. You see a patch of moss and then you see a little bird that for all practical purposes blends really well with the moss. Now that happens to be a young one of the famous Kolea that we have here in Hawaii. Kolea are really in some way can have pretty magical birds. The adults will fly out around May or so. They fly all the way to either Alaska or Siberia. They can take three or four days to fly. It could be a nonstop flight. And then they go and that's, you know, before going out, they get this beautiful mating costume. Right. The males especially have a beautiful black thing. You have probably seen them. Yeah. They'll fly out in groups all the way to Alaska, Siberia, Northern Canada and so on, where they very quickly mate and have their offspring. The offspring pretty soon after they are hatched can move around and feed themselves. So by end of July or so, the adult birds will start coming back to Hawaii. And the young ones will stay there, continue to feed themselves. And if and when they have gathered enough, you know, size and fat reserves and so on, those amazing birds, the newly hatched baby birds need to fly all the way back to wherever they're going to go. Again, a several thousand mile flight with no one to show them the way. Wow. And then they make it here pretty late, you know, August, September, actually September, October, maybe even November. And then they are, they have completed the most amazing journey of their life without anyone to guide them. And then they will spend the winter months in warm places, like Hawaii, also in California, also India, Southeast Asia, and then they will fly back again the next summer. So that's, so anyway, those amazing thing that looked like a patch of moss, but actually baby Kolea or golden flowers. Nice. And the one next to that, if you can show that picture is also extremely cute. That's a baby Manu Oku. Okay. That's a baby Manu Oku or white fairy. Now that totally looks so cute, doesn't it? Yeah. So now if you see them normally, unless you're looking for them, you will probably think it's a pigeon. You'll think it's a white pigeon if they're flying around. The adults look like that. Actually they are sea birds. They fly out to sea and they catch tiny fish and maybe even tiny squid and so on. And then they were, these Manu Oku make very rudimentary nests, you know, hardly a twig or two. If at all they'll put it on some high branch of a tree or something and often in urban areas like near the place where I work or at Iolani school and many other urban locations, you will actually find a little baby white fairy turn sitting on a branch. It doesn't have a nest or anything, just perching on the branch and from time to time the parents will come back and feed it fish. And they are very, very cute when they're at that stage. They look fuzzy. Later they get white feathers. But anyway, a place where you are guaranteed to see adult white fairy turns is if you go to the Royal Hawaiian shopping center, after dusk, after dusk, if you walk along the walkway, you know, Royal Hawaiian shopping center is pretty long. You'll see a tree and on top of the, if you look up at that tree, a high tree, you'll see a lot of white bird butts. You'll see the butts of white birds. And every, oh, okay. Waikiki is full of pigeons, you know, and actually that particular tree and those particular white butts are actually the butts of Kolea white fairy. That's a guaranteed place where you can see dozens of white fairy turns, but it has to be after dusk. Then you can find that tree and look at the birds butts. Oh, great. Thanks for that tip. I'm going to definitely notice that next time I go there. That's awesome. Royal Hawaiian shopping center. So you guys also have a course, correct? Where people can learn to care for birds. What do they go over in that course? Okay. We don't have like a formal course as such. I think whenever we can and whenever there's enough interest, like I told you, Wildbird Rehab Haven is a collection, totally of volunteers doing it, you know, of their own accord on their own free time. So, okay, our motto is like this. Okay. Just for a moment, refer to our webpage again. If you go all the way to the bottom, you'll find a YouTube video. Do not start the video. I'm just showing you that, okay, this is the video. If you click on it, you will find that this lady called Jay is saying something that is also like the unofficial or official motto of Wildbird Rehab Haven. We help people to help the bird that they find. Okay. We help people to help the bird that they find because this is a network of volunteers. We are not like the human society or like some wildlife refuge that can accept no questions asked anything that is brought in. So, as far as possible, what we want to do is educate, demonstrate, and help people to take care of the bird that they find. And for that, we have some very useful resources. You specifically asked about classes. We do have classes from time to time. They last probably two and a half to three hours or so. And they will cover topics like basic baby bird care, baby bird diets, and very simple things that you need to do when you find the bird. And those are actually fairly well summarized on our webpage and click on caring for birds. Okay. So now if you'd be so kind, click on supporting baby birds. Okay. And if you keep going down, ah, yes. Okay. So think about it, you know, okay, just stop right there. Okay. People think, oh, no, baby bird. Okay. We have to feed it something. That's not how it works. Yeah. So the number one thing you can do for a baby bird, especially, but also for other birds. Now, human beings have a body temperature about 98.6 Fahrenheit. Birds are much warmer than us. They'll feel as though they have a fever. They're at about 102 Fahrenheit or thereabouts. So a baby bird either may not have enough feathers yet, or it may be too small, or his body may not be mature enough, or it may not have enough food to maintain its temperature. So the number one thing you need to do for baby birds are keep them warm. And the way you do that, ideally, ideally, you would get a heating pad from us longs or Walgreens or something. Put it on low. Put the baby bird inside a box, you know, with a towel below and a little, little nest that you make for it below and put the box half on and half off of the heating pad set to low so that the bird can either move towards the heat or away from the heat depending on how it feels. And even a small bird can crawl to that extent. So if a bird is going to die, a baby bird, most likely number one reason is because it is too cold. When you touch it, it should feel warm, especially if its feet are cold. It really needs to be warmed up. So above all, keep it warm. That's the best thing you can do for a baby bird. Yeah. Next thing, you know, I'm sorry. Oh, great tip. Yeah. So. Okay, now that bird may either be dehydrated or not have any nutrition if it's a baby. So one of the next best of number one, keep it warm. But other than that, you know, if you don't have any nutrition, you can give them nutrition to stay alive temporarily at least. And the way you do that is you never, ever pry open their beak or anything like that. What you need to do is get some PDL light or Gatorade, you know, which are, you know, the drinks that people who are athletes will drink after exertion or babies are given it. They have diarrhea or something like that. So if you don't have PDL light or Gatorade, then you can mix five parts water to one part sugar or honey. Yeah, that's five water to one sugar or one honey. Mix it up thoroughly. Make sure it's warm because you never want to chill the bird. You never want to cool the bird. So warm it up. It must be a nice warm body temperature, not hot. You can take it in your finger and you can dribble it at the tip and sides of the beak, but not into its nostril. Yeah. So take a drop or two of this nectar kind of thing, hold it with your finger at the tip of its beak, maybe at the side of its beak, not into the nostril for sure. And after a while, the bird might make some swallowing. Something like it might do that. If they actually catch on after a while, if they are going to get water or nutrition, they will do that. And then give them a few drops, three or four drops. The sugar will at least keep them alive for an hour or two. So you can get it into safe hands that can give it good nutrition. So that's thing number two that you can do for the bird. Yeah. And of course, even before you get to this stage, you need to assess whether the bird is injured, you know, like if it's bleeding. For sure you don't need to stop the bleeding, which you would do with light pressure, not heavy pressure, but light pressure. Obviously you don't want to be touching bird blood. Yeah. So you can use gloves or something, or you can use a gauze pad or something. And light pressure to try and stop the bleeding. Now, if it has any injuries, like a wing is clearly broken or drooping, or a leg is way twisted or any part of its eyes, face, anything is swollen or oozing, or it has obvious injuries, you really, really, unless you're an experienced person, you, if you care, if you care, you know, pay the money and take it to a vet if you possibly can. It's not going to be cheap. But if you think human being deserve medical care, and if you are willing to extend that to a bird that might be in danger, if at all possible, try take it to an avian vet. Not all vets are bird specialists. There are several on the island, and you'll find some of them on our website. But if they're, you know, injured, wing broken, leg broken, bleeding, something oozing, the poop smells weird. The eyes are, you know, oozing or swollen. There is white stuff inside their mouth. Unless you're an experienced person, get it to a vet, or if not, call Wild Bird Rehab Haven. Better yet, email Wild Bird Rehab Haven. You'll find this under contact on our website. Go to contact us. Okay, the best way you can contact us is send email to rehabbirds at Wild Bird Rehab Haven.org. Please, please, please include, if at all possible, your phone number. And for sure include some photographs so that we can identify what kind of bird it is, maybe what kind of condition it is in and thereby get back to you and try to help you. There's also a phone number there, but you will get much faster response by sending an email. Incidentally, there are other bird rescue groups out there. If you go to Facebook and search on Facebook, I think it's called Bird Rescue of Hawaii or something like that. Those people are also very active. So these are some of the ways in which you can contact us. Okay, thank you so much. We're out of time and we have to wrap it up. I'm Dr. Jason Neal. This is Healthy Planet on the Think Tech Live Streaming Network series. We've been talking with Raja from the Wild Bird Rehab Haven. Thanks to Eric, our broadcast engineer, and the rest of the crew at Think Tech for hosting our show. And thanks to you, our listeners for listening. I'll see you in two weeks for more of Healthy Planet on Think Tech, the show for people who care about their health and the health of our planet. My special guest will be Daniel Dennell from Trees for Honolulu's Future. If you have ideas for the show or questions for my future guests, please contact me at Healthy Planet Think Tech at gmail.com. Check out my website at GreeceandHawaii.com or Instagram at GreeceforLiving365 for more information on my projects including future show guests. I'm Dr. Grace O'Neill. Aloha everyone. Mahalo.