Course in wildlife rehabilitation

This weekend we attended a course in wildlife rehabilitation, given by Katastrofhjälpen - a nationwide non-profit organization taking care of injured birds and other wildlife. The aim of the organization is to rehabilitate injured animals so well that they can be released and reproduce in the wild. If the injured animal is beyond recovery, it is euthanised to spare it from further suffering.
Many of the animals taken care of are birds, and we learned a lot about rehabilitating different species by two enthusiastic teachers who had more than 80 years of experience between them!

Among the things we learned, was how to fix injured bird wings.

We also practised how to tube feed starved or dehydrated birds.

 //Helena

On the nest

 Juno has started to sit on the nest, and for the first day she didn't come down to feed when I brought the daily meal. Siden did, though, and then flew directly to the nest to feed Juno.

Winter creatures

All humans I know consider the ever falling snow as an outrage. I mean, it's late March! The ravens wouldn't agree. Lying on the back in the powdery snow while your partner is preening you - what else is there to wish for?

//Helena

Interior decoration

A few days with nice weather, and the couple decided to go for the outdoor nest. This is what it looked like this morning. They seem quite happy with the construction and have started to focus on the lining. Old grass, dried weeds and other soft materials are of interest. I tried to supply them with various things, like hay and horse fur, but just before night fall I found the perfect lining material- small pieces of hemp string that I fluffed up.

Juno was thrilled, and picked up every single piece I offered through the mesh of the aviary. Interestingly, she seems to be solely in charge of the interior decoration - pulling away strings of hemp from Sidens beak and flies off to do her thing. How I wonder what the nest looks like from the inside.

//Helena

Breeding season

At the moment there is intense acitivity in the aviaries. Breeding season has started.
We have two couples - the top ranked siblings Siden and Juno, and Rickard and None - who has been paired up like this since they were young. It can take between 2 and 7 years for ravens to start breeding, and hopefully it will take a few more years before our ravens begin. This spring, they will become two years old, and the activity going on seems to be more of training.

As Siden is the dominant male, he and his companion Juno are the ones building a nest. And they started out on a small platform put for this particular reason. I have to bring loads of twigs so they can choose whatever twigs they find appropriate. Yesterday I brought a big pile, and this morning almost every twig was gone.

 

Last week, it was extremely windy with winds up to 20 m/s, and I felt sorry for the busy couple trying to build a nest in such an exposed spot. So I decided to build a nestbox for them. As they had already started a nest, I wasn't sure if they would be at all interested. And it wasn't the easiest task to attach the rather heavy box close to the roof, almost blown of the ladder.

The next morning I was curious to see if they had dared to approach it, and this was what I found! Busy little bees had already started on a nest, and I was happy to see that they could get some better protection from the wind.

Siden, struggeling with a particularly difficult twig.

//Helena

Visit to Bavaria

Christian, Berenika, Auguste, Hugo, Mathias and Ivo

Last week we went to Bavaria in Germany to visit Auguste von Bayern and her research group. She works mostly with jackdaws (Corvus monedula) and New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) which are housed in number of outdoor aviaries in Leutstetten. The New Caledonian crow is endemic to The New Caledonian islands and is famous for its tool-use and abilitiy to solve sophisticated cognitive tests. We only met the crows briefly, but I was totally mesmarized by their soft and endearing calls.

The last common ancester of ravens and New Caledonian crows lived 12 million years ago, which is about twice as long as the last common ancester of humans and chimpanzees (6 mya). An interesting perspective, as I would think that most people (myself included) quite often think of different species of crow birds as "just crow birds".

//Helena

Top bird

Rickard submissively backing away from Siden

This week we have some constuction work going on next to the aviaries, so the ravens have some time off from training. But as soon as I came out they all fly down to see what funny or edible stuff I might bring today. And all birds want to be first. At times like this, it's good to be the top bird; you just walk around, looking hard and strong, and the other birds immediately retreat  - all fluff and bows.
If you are the undisputed dominant bird, it seems as if little aggression is needed to keep the others off. Just look how effectively Siden (silver ring) shoos away all other birds but his sister Juno (orange ring) - just by walking around in a certain manner.

//Helena