Native Bird Care is an avian rescue center in Central Oregon specializing in native birds needing unique care such as song, shore, and water birds. We rely on public support and dedicate 100% of donations to bird care, housing, or medical treatment.  There are no paid staff, and the facility runs through thousands of hours of dedicated volunteer time and effort. 

Elise Wolf is Native Bird Care's professional rehabilitator. She has specialized training in songbirds, shorebirds, and waterbirds (a group that includes grebes, loons, swans, rails, egrets, and other water associated birds).

There are 349 species of birds that either migrate through or live in Central Oregon. Each type of bird needs care specific to them in terms of how we house them, their stress levels, food needs, and other aspects of who they are. 

Waterbirds, for example, must be housed on filtered, recirculating pools. This is how we keep their feathers waterproof and prevent chest and feet wounds from sitting. Shorebirds must have private, removed aviaries, incubators, and wide variety of living insects (or they won't eat or will have so much stress they will fail to grow).

Woodpeckers must perch vertically and need very large enclosures with large pine stumps, they also eat living insects. Common Poorwill, Golden Crowned Kinglets, Cedar Waxwings, and Evening Grosbeaks all need certain foods, types of housing, appropriate sized perches, and other particular aspects to their care. 

The smallest of birds require highly skilled handling for medical treatment as their bones are fragile, injuries are easily made worse, or they can simply die from stress. 

This is why we specialize. We have sought the training and experience for the birds that we do. As they years have gone by, Elise has expanded her abilities to a wide number of species, some quite challenging and unique like the Common Nighthawk. While she has some training in raptors, due to the stress their presence and calls make to our other birds (they are their predators), we do not rehab them here. 
Link your Fred Myers account to Native Bird Care! Use NPO number 94373. Click button ​
Native Bird Care of Sisters
PO Box 3500, #409
Sisters, OR 97759

How Can You Help?

We can help our flighted friends by adapting our homes and our outside spaces. First, we can prevent window injuries with some simple window solutions. We can keep dogs on leashes. We can stay on trails. We can put up a "catio" for our kitties. If we don't want woodpeckers, we can choose harmless solutions. We can stop using pesticides and herbicides, and instead plant native plants so our birds have healthy food. And we can be wise in our placement of bird feeders, what and how we feed.  

Birds need our yards for nesting. We will never see most of these nests, birds excel at hiding. But, eventually the babies must leave the nest to learn to care for themselves (you parents out there get this part!). Several of our local native birds must learn to find food on the ground - they are ground-feeders. These include all of the doves, juncos, and the infamous robin who cheers us up during the spring with its lovely call. In fact, most birds use the ground at least some.

In the summer, we can be watchful of what is happening in our yards. Who is nesting where and in what tree or shrub? Who are our wild, flighted neighbors anyway? What do they eat and where? And when we see they are nesting, we can bring our pets in when a nest of fledglings is about to jump out onto the ground. We can make sure we are not spraying our potential nesting trees with pesticides or other products too. We can make sure there are lots of hiding places in our yards for our birds by planting shrubs, or better yet, by planting our native shrubs (sage, bitter and rabbit brush). Most birds eat bugs, so having healthy native plants and shrubs in our yards helps our birds with food. In the end, baby birds can fall out of nests, be ill enough for a parent to abandon, or perhaps be born too late in the season and be abandoned by a parent needing to migrate. We are happy to help you determine what is best for a baby or fledgling you find and are worried about. Please look at the 'I found a baby bird' page. 

Habitat or Bird Consultation

Stay tuned to the blog as Elise covers all sorts of habitat improvement tips for caring for the wild birds that visit your yard, whether that  is a tiny plot or a large acreage. Wildlife rescue is more than finding an animal and taking it to a wildlife rehabilitator, it is also about improving their outdoor living spaces so that they are safe from our pets, poisons, and other human-caused dangers. 
Contact us at: 541-728-8208 (text preferred) or email us at lovenativebirds at gmail.com
Help us get the word out by 'Liking' our facebook page, at Native Bird Care of Sisters, Oregon
And check out the Blog for interesting stories, tips and solutions, and pictures of our beautiful patients.