Oiled birds : how to search for and capture oiled birds at Oregon intertidal areas

Abstract

This is written primarily as a step-by-step guide for the person(s) responsible for organizing searches of oiled birds and/or for training volunteers to handle oiled birds. It also gives details that can be useful to anyone that catches or handles birds, whether oiled or not. This monograph is based on the author's field experience after an oil spill along the Oregon Coast. But its findings are also applicable elsewhere, if the appropriate governmental agencies are substituted as necessary for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Perhaps the most significant point made is that a bird's legs should be fully supported when it is picked up. If supported, the bird remains calmer, and the bird won't be able to use its feet to scratch a volunteer. Photographs illustrate the correct way to handle an oiled bird from capture until it is transported in a box. This publication does NOT include information about rehabilitating oiled birds.