​Welcome to Native Bird Care 

PLEASE: If you have an injured bird text or call, do not email! 

We are a rescue center in Central Oregon, specializing in native birds needing unique care such as song, shore, and water birds. We rely entirely on public donations and our services are free. Without public donations we would not be able to operate. Central Oregon has incredible diversity of species - enough so that we are known as a "Pacific Flyway" for migratory birds. This means that not only does Native Bird Care help all of our local wild birds, but also birds traveling to and from their winter or summer homes. Many of these species need unique and specialized care.

Like all animals it is the larger, more charismatic birds (like the Trumpeter Swan you can read about on our blog) that gets more public attention, and indeed they have very special needs in care. But some of the most extraordinary birds are also the tiniest, and thus the hardest to care for. Take the Ruby Crowned Kinglet, a 10 gram bird the size of your thumb. This bird can withstand temperatures of minus 50 degrees in the Arctic, yet during migration it is not uncommon for them to hit our windows and hurt themselves. Handling this bird is akin to handling the most expensive and finest, delicate china. One wrong move and you can break a bone. Training to care for songbirds takes years of handling and treatment skill development. They are fragile and because of their size and usually high-stress behavior, are difficult patients.

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). We are a small facility and have focused on these birds in our facility set up. 
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

Services We Offer

​There are many reasons why wild birds and other wildlife need rescue and rehabilitation: weakness during migration, human interference, cat or dog attacks, hitting windows or buildings, getting hit by a car, power lines, pesticide spraying (roadside or homes and businesses), loss of food and nesting sites, and illness are just a few. Wild birds have difficult lives. While we hear them out in the spring 'singing' and fluttering about, their actual lives are not so charming. Our native birds face increasing challenges as our urban areas expand and their natural habitats decrease.

In Central Oregon, homes with large, expansive windows are built further and further into wild areas that are nesting and feeding sites. More roads are built, bringing cars and other vehicles into wild areas. Trails are built taking people on bikes, horses, and foot into historically wild areas free from human interference. Large swaths of land are developed for more and more housing developments, and the overall population of Central Oregon continues to expand. While none of us seeks to harm wild animals, the reality is - we do. Humans are the largest impact to our native birds and wildlife. 

How Can We 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.