Stories

2021-2022 Nursery Review

A day in the nursery goes a little something like this: arrive at 6.30-7.00am. Warm up syringe feeding mixes for each species in care. Feed the babies. Administer medications. Feed the babies. Clean out housing. Feed the babies. Set up housing with fresh branches and appropriate food. Feed the babies. Administer fluid therapy. Feed the ...

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Posted: April 15, 2022Tags: , , , , Categories: Birds in Care, Nursery

Parapara, the bird catcher tree

Parapara, also known as the bird catcher tree, is native to New Zealand. It typically grows on islands and coastal areas of the North Island, and is present in Auckland. In spring-summer, parapara seeds develop a glue-like coating which is designed to help with seed dispersal. This coating remains sticky for months, and traps birds ...

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Posted: September 8, 2021Tags: , , Category: Uncategorized

The very hungry oystercatcher

Waitā the oystercatcher arrived depressed, severely underweight, with suspected head trauma, damaged flight feathers, and some bald patches. After fluid therapy, he spent the night in the ICU on oxygen. The team then began to tube feed him to try and put some weight back on. After a week, Waitā moved to an aviary, where ...

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Posted: July 29, 2021Category: Birds in Care

A successful fundraiser!

  Thanks to the support of the community, BirdCare’s recent annual Theatre Evening at Titirangi Theatre successfully raised the funds to purchase a much needed infusion pump.   An infusion pump is a device which controls the administration of small amounts of fluid to help a bird recover from injury.   The usual drip hook-up you ...

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Posted: July 19, 2021Categories: Birds in Care, Fundraising

National Volunteer Week…

  A big thank you to the UoA Alumni volunteers who helped tackle the climbing asparagus ‘plantation’ last week. This involved some tough and precarious walking through the many hectares of bush on our BirdCare Aotearoa property which backs onto the Manukau Harbour. The climbing asparagus is a difficult weed to work with but the ...

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Posted: June 30, 2021Tags: Category: Volunteers

Board Members needed

BirdCare Aotearoa (formerly NZ Bird Rescue) provides professional care for rescued wild birds – both native and non native. As well as running a hospital in Green Bay, Auckland, we provide education and training for volunteers, professionals and the wider community. The organisation has undergone significant improvements over the past 3 years. We have an ...

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Posted: June 28, 2021Tags: Category: Join Our Team

A BIG thank you on behalf of our little blue penguins…

In March this year, hundreds of bird lovers like yourself gave generously to our matched giving campaign. Thanks to YOU, we raised over $13,800 to build a dedicated, predator-free waterbird enclosure for our little blue penguins, to give them the best chance of survival in a stress free environment. We are so grateful for the ...

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Posted: June 9, 2021Category: Uncategorized

A juvenile oyster catcher with expensive taste in food!

I arrived at hospital (BirdCare Aotearoa) with a very sore head (suspected head trauma) and very skinny (underweight). The nice lady put me on oxygen, gave me something to drink (fluids) and made my head feel better (pain relief). Yay. I was given food through a tube for a few days and watched very closely ...

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Posted: June 8, 2021Tags: Category: Birds in Care

How we waterproof a Cook’s Petrel!

We received 148 tītī (Cook’s petrel) through our centre from mid-March to April – the bulk of which arrived over one week! No sooner had we released them, a new batch arrived, so we were certainly kept on our toes. Poor weather and low cloud levels kept fledging petrels flying lower than usual over Auckland. ...

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Posted: May 31, 2021Category: Cook's Petrels

Scrappy – our resident Kereru

Our resident kereru “Scrappy” was finally released last week. YAY. He had been with us since November 2020! This poor kereru came to us after being attacked (we think) as he had more than half of all his feathers missing. He was in pain, dehydrated and unable to fly. It took two moults before he ...

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Posted: May 6, 2021Category: Kereru