Wild Bird Rehabilitation, Inc – Caring for Wild Birds

Wild Bird Rehabilitation, Inc. (“WBR”) is one of four similar institutions situated in the St. Louis municipal area that was created to care for wild birds. WRB was established in 1992 as a private rehabilitation center and began taking in sick and injured wild birds in the middle of 1993. The Center’s main purpose is to care for wild birds in need of help or that have been orphaned, and then to release them back into their natural habitats when they are ready.

The WBR assists and looks after as many as 2,500 birds every year and receives thousands of phone calls from members of the public looking for assistance. Most of the wild birds here come from veterinarians, welfare organizations and St. Louis animal agencies, and they are looked after by volunteer staff. The wild birds that are handled by Wild Bird Rehabilitation represent over one hundred bird species native to the St. Louis metropolitan area. The WBR is run purely on private donations from loyal donors.

The winter staff is made up of twenty volunteers who give four to eight hours of their precious time every week to help the WRB run smoothly. Between the peak months of April and September the volunteer numbers increase to 80 persons as more help is needed to look after the more than two hundred birds brought to the Center every day. Volunteers at Wild Bird Rehabilitation, Inc feed and clean cages twice a day in order to maintain a healthy bird population and prevent the spread of disease. There is also two paid staff who works half-day for the WBR who help and report directly to the Executive Director.

Volunteers of Wild Bird Rehabilitation also devote many hours informing scouts, schools and community groups about the Center’s activities and how the public can help support WBR in its attempts to save and look after wild birds. Every year more than 30,000 people are given some form of avian education or support from WRB.

One of the Wild Bird Rehabilitation’s most recent efforts is to provide Chimney Swifts with a tower where they can roost and nest. The tower has a camera situated within it so that the nesting process of these wonderful birds can be monitored and watched by staff as well as the general public – right on the Internet. There will also be an information board provided, which will display information about what they eat and where their travels take them.