Recovered brown pelicans take flight off San Pedro’s White Point Beach
A group of brown pelicans were set free on a San Pedro beach on Wednesday, June 5, after recovering from starvation and various injuries.
The seabirds, which were released back into the wild from White Point Beach, spent several weeks getting back to good health at International Bird Rescue’s San Pedro center.
Since mid-April, International Bird Rescue has admitted more than 350 emaciated and injured pelicans to its two centers; besides San Pedro, the nonprofit animal care organization also has a facility in Fairfield, which serves Northern California.
A similar situation played out in Orange County last month.
Officials from the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center released 10 brown pelicans off the beach in Corona del Mar in May. Those birds, like the one released in San Pedro on Wednesday, had come that center emaciated and near starvation but ultimately recovered enough that they were set free, spreading their wings while standing on the rock jetty — before soaring off over the ocean.
For now, there is no conclusive answer on what is causing the crisis. An investigation is ongoing with the International Bird Rescue’s colleagues at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
But there are signs, wildlife officials said, that the crisis is abating and that pelicans are again successfully foraging in most locations.
“With these releases, we’re sending them home to the ocean healthy and in great condition to fly wherever they need to go,” veterinarian Rebecca Duerr, director of research and veterinary science at International Bird Rescue, said in a press release. “Our special banding program will show how they will do in the wild.”
That program is an effort to track the birds by banding numbers to their legs in case they wind up back at the center in the future.
“We can’t keep them in care forever,” Duerr said, “and we can’t fix what’s ailing the ocean.”
To find food, pelicans will leave their natural habitat and risk going into human-populated areas; some pelicans have been found in odd places by the center, including one on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport.
Finding birds in unusual and unsafe places is a sign they may need help and the public is asked to call the center’s Bird Help Line at 866-SOS-BIRD (866-767-2473).
The current pelican crisis is reminiscent of spring 2022, center officials said, when a stranding event also saw at least 350 starving brown pelicans being cared for at the centers.
The cost of caring for the pelicans is steep, though, because they ned both food and medication. Members of the public can donate to the cause at birdrescue.org/savepelicans.