Dozens of bird eggs and chicks were rescued from nests in a single wind-damaged eucalyptus tree that was dangerously close to collapsing in a California park.
Now staff at the International Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles Wildlife Center have been working around the clock to care for the 47 eggs and 12 chicks, all double-crested Cormorants, in hopes that they will be able to be released back into the wild in a few months.
The tree at a park in Marina del Rey was flagged earlier this month after one of its trunks fell and crushed a trash bin enclosure, explained Nicole Mooradian, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches & Harbors. Its other trunk was showing signs of collapsing as well.
“It wasn’t a question of if this tree is going to fail, it was more of a when,” she said Monday. “The cracks were growing wider by the day. It was really bad.”
For at least five hours on March 10, tree contractors meticulously removed each of the 20 nests and chopped off branches one at a time. Biologists on the ground put the eggs and hatchlings in egg cartons and boxes with heated blankets acting as temporary incubators.
Double-crested Cormorants are common in Southern California and tend to nest in large colonies that may crowd a single tree, explained Kylie Clatterbuck, wildlife center manager for the bird rescue.
Taking care of them can be very difficult because when they hatch they are essentially “naked little balls of skin” completely reliant on their parents, she said.
At the rescue in San Pedro, the chicks must be fed every hour from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.. When staff interact with them, they wear a black suit and disguise their face, while using decoys and puppets to keep the birds from forming an attachment with them, which could make them too trusting of humans in the wild.
Rescue staff expect the birds to stay for at least three months and then once they can hunt on their own and fly, they plan to release them into the wild.
All of the chicks are healthy and happy, with some about 2 weeks old and already eating whole fish, said Clatterbuck.
“It’s really hard raising baby birds. We do our best; we do what we know; we treat what we know,” she said. “And we can only hope that they do a good job and they can survive.”