What’s Next When You Find An Injured Bird?

Wounded birds and animals don’t have to suffer —Licensed wildlife rehabilitators can help.

Rufus, an Eastern Screech Owl rehabilitated by Annie Mardiney, became an education bird due to missing an eye. (Photo: Jacqueline Dooley)

There’s something especially heartbreaking about coming across an injured bird — a creature meant to soar that is suddenly suffering, earthbound.

The good news is that its fate doesn’t have to be dying on the ground. New York State has resources to help. A quick phone call to the Department of Environmental Conservation can connect you with local, licensed animal rehabilitators at the ready virtually 24/7.

In New York’s Hudson Valley, bird and wildlife rehabilitator Annie Mardiney is among these professional helpers. Mardiney has taken in 907 wild birds and released roughly 54% back into the wild over the past two years. She’s kept eighteen unreleasable raptors as education birds.

Mardiney owns Wild Mountain Birds in Ulster County, communicating with nearly 3,000 bird-loving residents through her Facebook group. She uses her website to collect donations that help pay for the supplies she needs to care for her tiny charges.

With a master’s degree in South American anthropology from Cornell, Mardiney has reinvented herself multiple times. Among other things, she was K-12 social studies teacher and a program coordinator at…