Bird rehab specialists at the International Bird Rescue Center are busy caring for dozens of baby birds saved from the streets of downtown Oakland.
Pushed out of their waterfront homes by development, a colony of herons has settled in an unlikely and dangerous place: in the dense trees that line the streets of busy downtown.
"They've lost the real estate, just like so many people lost real estate on front of the water," said Cindy Margulis with the Golden Gate Audubon Society. "And so these birds are looking for a place to raise their families."
But when the baby birds fall from the nest, as birds often do, they are getting injured or worse.
"They hit the concrete or wander in the street and get run over," Margulis said.
Now the Oakland Zoo and the Golden Gate Audobon Society have teamed up to save the baby birds. A hotline has been set up and zoo volunteers have rescue kits ready to respond.
The birds are then taken to International Bird Rescue for rehabilitation. The rescued herons are learning to perch and fly, and will soon be released back to the wild.
