The majority of baby birds, as well as small injured adults, are brought in by the finders. Trained volunteers go out for the more dangerous, hard to catch, or hard to handle animals. Medical assessment, stabilization, and treatment are initially performed by experienced and licensed rehabilitators who are trained to do physical examinations, emergency first-aid, immobilization of fractures, wound cleansing, basic laboratory diagnostics, etc. After such veterinary procedures, rehabilitators fulfill the role of technician, nurse, dietician, and physical therapist. Once conditioning is adequate, rehabilitators make the release decision, often working with biologists to determine the release site.
Rehabilitation requires commitment, training, space, funding, and permits.
Those working with eagles or endangered or threatened species need additional permits. Director Louise Shimmel and her staff of volunteers have been rehabilitating raptors since 1987. Volunteer chores include cleaning, feeding and direct animal care, which includes the provision of medications and food supplements, changing bandages, and blood sampling. Although, superficially, volunteers seem to deal primarily with the mundane jobs of cleaning cages and feeding the mice and rats which are fed to the birds, working with injured and orphaned raptors provides an opportunity to extract global ecological lessons from hands-on experience. The life cycles of the raptors become a part of a yearly schedule.