Update: Brandt’s Cormorant deaths in Bay Area

Beginning in mid-April, natural resource agencies began receiving reports of dead and dying cormorants (and occasionally other coastal birds) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dozens of dead Brandt’s Cormorants were found at a nesting colony on Alcatraz Island, and more that 100 have since been reported or recovered on the coast from Marin County south to Monterey County.

In addition, dozens of live sick cormorants have been recovered by local wildlife rehabilitation centers, including OWCN member organizations WildCare and International Bird Rescue Research Center. More than 25 injured live cormorants have been delivered to the San Francisco Bay Oiled Wildlife Care & Education Center, where staff and volunteers from IBRRC and the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center are providing care to these birds. According to the IBRRC Blog, Exec. Director Jay Holcomb describes the birds in care as “...adults in beautiful breeding plumage...in a weakened state but respond(ing) well to a treatment of fluid therapy and lots of fish”.

The California Department of Fish and Game Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center in Santa Cruz is conducting post-mortem exams and taking the lead on investigating potential causes of the unusual mortality event, with assistance from a number of organizations (including the OWCN and the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center). The dead birds found thus far are extremely emaciated, and showing no signs consistent with environmental contamination or infectious disease. However, samples are currently being checked for Newcastle Disease, Avian Influenza, West Nile Virus, and Domoic Acid toxicosis. There is no concern that these birds are carrying the recent H1N1 Influenza A (so-called “swine flu”) virus.

Cormorants feed on small fish that they capture by diving from the surface of the water. If the birds are starving due to lack of prey, it is not currently known what might have caused this abrupt change in prey availability, although the die-off began during a period of unusually strong northwest winds.

[Note: A Brandt's Comorant is characterized by blue eyes. Double-crested Cormorants have green eyes.]

There is no need to report dead birds to wildlife agencies and the public is asked to leave dead birds where they are found. Regular surveys are being conducted by volunteer monitoring programs established by the Gulf of the Farallones and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuaries to document the number and location of dead birds. If very large concentrations of dead birds are found, they can be reported to the Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center at (831) 469-1745.

Live birds in distress can be reported to local animal control or wildlife rehabilitation groups (contact info for local OWCN member organizations may be found here). If wildlife that may be oiled or otherwise contaminated is found, this information can be reported to the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at 1-877-UCD-OWCN.

More information on Brandt’s Cormorants may be found on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology site.

(Information from DFG-OSPR News Release and IBRRC Blog)

- by Mike Ziccardi, OWCN Director from the Oiled Wildlife Care Network Blog

News reports:

Hundreds of dead birds on Bay Area beaches: San Francisco Chronicle

Pelican crisis: "It will take some detective work"

In 35 years of studying pelicans, Dan Anderson, an avian specialist at UC Davis, says "it will take some detective work" to find out why scores of pelicans are showing thin, disoriented or even dead (photo, right) from Oregon to Baja California.

In a story from the Chicago Sun-Times, Anderson, says he's only seen this kind if event "once or twice" in his professional life.

Others are feeling the same way: "We've seen enough to imply that something is odd, and right now it is a big question mark what it is," said Jay Holcomb, Executive Director of IBRRC said in the same media report.

So far, many theories have surfaced about what might be happening. It could be a toxin, such as fire retardant, running off the land from recent fires. Or the domoic acid, a nuero-toxin that causes brain damage. Or even the cold weather that hit the Pacific Northwest in December that triggered another disease. Maybe all three contributed to this confluence of events.

Note: Recent tests of six pelicans did show levels of domoic acid in three of the birds. Read the press release

Since mid-December, IBRRC has taken in 160 pelicans for treatment in two California bird centers. IBRRC has also reported at least 300 dead brown pelicans in this same time period.

They been found in the oddest places: freeways, backyards and in store parking lots. We even had one report of one found at 7200 feet in New Mexico. They are disoriented, malnourished and badly in need of care. [ Note: Photo, right, from Albertson's parking lot in Southern California – Photo courtesy: Peter Wallerstein/Marine Animal Rescue ]

In meantime, if you see a pelican in need, please call this toll free number: 866-WILD-911. You can submit unusual photos of pelican sighting to webcoot@ibrrc.org)

How to help the pelicans:

Adopt-a-Pelican

Donate online

Sign-up to volunteer your time

Shop at Ralphs Grocery Store? Sign-up your card to help

Starving young pelican numbers grow: Help!

The number of young pelicans sick and starving arriving at IBRRC's two bird centers continues to grow.

Jay Holcomb, IBRRC's executive director, has issued a plea to the public for help in treating these birds. The fish bill alone is at least $750 a day between the two centers. You can help by adopting a pelican or becoming a pelican partner to assist us in our long-term support for these endangered animals. Read his urgent appeal

More than 150 pelicans have been delivered to the Cordelia/Fairfield and San Pedro Centers in the past six weeks. Dedicated staff and the wonderful volunteers at both centers continue to assist these wonderful birds.

Most of the birds are weak due to lack of food and some have more serious injuries, according to Holcomb. He says it's not uncommon for the centers to treat ailing pelicans during the summer months. This year the numbers are definitely up and partly this can be attributed a successful nesting season for pelicans in the Channel Islands.

Some good news

The good news today is that some of the earlier arrivals have been stabilized with fish and TLC and are being released. Six California Brown Pelicans were turned back to the wild Saturday afternoon at Fort Baker's Horseshoe Cove in Sausalito.

Media reports:

Influx of rescued pelicans in California: ABC News

Pelicans nursed back to health: Vacaville Reporter

Pelicans released back to the wild: The Daily Breeze photos

Sick and hungry pelicans flooding bird centers

It's another busy summer season for the staff and volunteers at IBRRC as sick and starving young pelicans arrive for treatment at both California centers. Since June nearly 100 pelicans have been transfered to the bird rescue centers – one in San Pedro and the other in Cordelia, CA – to be given the best possible care. They're coming from Monterey/Santa Cruz and Los Angeles/Orange County area beaches.

To help defray the cost of caring for the pelicans, IBRRC is asking for the public's help. Currently the pelicans are eating at least $750 worth of fish a day.

You can adopt a pelican through the bird center's adopt-a-bird program for $200. For a $500 adoption fee you can become a Pelican Partner. When your pelican is ready for release, you will be invited to one of our two bird centers in California and watch as our staff gives your bird its final examination, evaluation, approval and numbered Federal band. You and your family will then accompany IBRRC staff to release your pelican at a local site. You will be the one to open the cage, let your pelican go free and take photos or video of this wonderful experience. A beautiful commemorative certificate will include your name, the date and place of release and your pelican’s band number. You will also receive a IBRRC t-shirt.


Luckily this year IBRRC completed construction of a new 100-foot pelican aviary at its Cordelia, CA bird center. The aviary allows pelicans to recuperate in large comfortable setting. It has two large pools and perches for the birds to fly back and forth to stretch their wings. The aviary was completed with funds from the Green Foundation and the Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN). The San Pedro center has had a pelican aviary since it opened in 2001.



How to help: Adopt-a-Pelican

More information on Pelicans in Peril

Found a bird? How to handle a sick or injured pelican or other aquatic birds.

Birds sickened along central coast a mystery

IBRRC has been assisting with the care of hundreds of birds that have been showing up with a mysterious illness along the central coast of California from Morro Bay south to Santa Barbara. Many of the 200+ birds are also showing signs of oiling.

The grebes are being treated at IBRRC's Corelia and San Pedro centers. They are mainly Western and Clark’s grebes, two species that are common long the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Many have come from the Oceano Dunes area near San Luis Obispo. About one-third the birds have died.

Feather samples of the oiled birds are being examined by the state's Fish and Game division: the Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR). The samples should help determine if this the result of natural seepage in the area or an unreported oil spill.

Oil seepage occurs naturally all along the coast of California. Most of seeps affect the Santa Barbara Channel area near Coal Oil Point. Oil seeps have been documented by early California explorers and by coast-dwelling Chumash Indians. Recent storms may have stirred up the oil which usually floats on currents as tar balls. See a map of California oil seeps

Pacific Wildlife Care center in Morro Bay has been collecting the birds and arranging transportation to IBRRC's centers.

Monterey Bay algae bloom sickens 613 birds

Just as the San Francisco Bay spill response winds down, IBRRC is now busy again treating hundreds of oiled and sick birds washing ashore in Monterey Bay affected by an odd oily substance.

About 613 birds have been rescued and at least 300 are being treated at the Cordelia bird center. The incident seems be caused by a naturally occurring red tide or algae bloom in the bay waters from Marina Beach north to Santa Cruz.


Rescue crews search for oiled birds along Monterey Bay
(Video: © Rebecca Dmytryk Titus)

Dead and sick surf scoters, fulmars, grebes, loons and other near-shore birds began appearing on Monterey Bay beaches on Nov. 10. A second die-off hit again on November 24. The birds were initially brought to Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center in Santa Cruz and also transported to the IBRRC/OWCN's San Pedro bird center. Now the OWCN center in Solano County is taking all new birds rescued in the spill.

The mysterious oily substance on birds was first thought to be a man-made spill. However, Dave Jessup, a California State Fish and Game senior veterinarian, says birds that turned up sick or dead weren't killed by the San Francisco Bay oil spill or aerial spraying to eradicate the light brown apple moth.

"At this point we believe it's related to the algae blooms," Jessup said.

Red tide is a catchall phrase describing seawater with microscopic organisms that blooms causing it to change colors. What causes this is open to speculation: It could be weather pattern changes, fertilizer runoff after a hard rain, or a higher exposure to sunlight.

The part of the bloom sickening seabirds is a a water-soluble protein called a "surfactant." It foams when it comes in contact with water, but state officials are still trying to determine the protein's source.

Because the seabirds were not sickened by an oil spill or other human-caused incident, the Department of Fish and Game halted its bird rescue efforts November 27. Later this week on November 29, Fish and Game reactivated the spill response. Members of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN), veterinarians from UC Davis and IBRRC's experienced wildlife rehabilitation staff are now working on the spill.

The spill was dubbed the "Moss Landing Mystery Spill" because a large number of birds first beached themselves near Moss Landing Harbor in Monterey Bay.

As a non-profit, IBRRC is asking for public donations to offset the high cost of treating these birds. Donate Now

More info:

IBRRC website

About the IBRRC/OWCN partnership:

The International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) plays two major roles within the Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN). First, IBRRC acts as the lead oiled bird response organization that, under the management of the OWCN, responds to most of the oil spills that affect birds, reptiles and fresh water aquatic mammals in California. Secondly, IBRRC is contracted to develop and teach a series of annual trainings for OWCN participants. These trainings are designed to familiarize members with concepts in oiled wildlife capture and rehabilitation.

Media reports:

San Francisco Chronicle

Santa Cruz Sentinel

KION 46-TV Video report

Monterey Herald, Registration required