Notes on Contributors

Yaritza Acosta graduated from Lees-McRae College in 2012 with a Bachelor's Degree in Biology and a minor in wildlife rehabilitation. While studying there she was introduced to the Blue Ridge Wildlife Institute, where she learned most of her wildlife rehabilitation skills. After graduation, she relocated to Miami, FL and started volunteering at Pelican Harbor Seabird Station. She was brought on as staff four months later and has held a variety of positions since then. In April of 2013 she became a full-time staff member and is currently the Rehabilitation Manager for Pelican Harbor Seabird Station.

Tracy Anderson was the Program Coordinator for Save Our Shearwaters 2011-2019. She completed a BS in Biology and Geography at the University of Victoria and has worked in wildlife rehabilitation for over 20?years, in 3 countries: Canada, United States, and Belize. Previous positions included work at Mountainaire Avian Rescue in Courtenay, BC and British Columbia SPCA's WildARC in Victoria, BC. Tracy obtained seabird and waterbird-specific training at International Bird Rescue in California and then spent a year in Belize working with Central American species, such as parrots and toucans. She has also worked with endangered Eastern Loggerhead Shrikes. Tracy has been involved with banding passerines (songbirds) and owls and has served on the boards of several natural history and wildlife-related organizations.

Nancy Barbachano has been a wild bird rehabilitator for over 20?years. She volunteers with Gold Country Wildlife Rescue and Wildlife Care Association in California. She has served as Secretary for the Board of Directors of the California Council for Wildlife Rehabilitators. Nancy specializes in woodpeckers, hummingbirds, and songbirds. She has worked with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology since 2007 to determine whether or not Acorn Woodpecker babies can be released back into the wild into an existing colony. She also teaches various rehabilitation classes about bird rehabilitation locally, statewide, and nationwide.

Michelle Bellizzi has served in a variety of critical roles over the span of her 20-year career at International Bird Rescue. She served as the Manager of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Wildlife Center between 2003 and 2015 where she oversaw the care of approximately 3000 patients per year. While managing the rehabilitation program, she supervised the hand-rearing, re-nesting, and fostering of shorebirds, gulls, cormorants, alcids, ducklings, herons, and egrets. She has also responded to more than 30 oil spills around the globe, from Alaska to Argentina. Between her rehabilitation and response work, she has had the opportunity to work with a wide variety of species, ranging from pelagic seabirds, penguins, and terrestrial birds, as well as oiled beaver, muskrats, snakes, turtles, and a variety of amphibians.

Veronica Bowers has been working exclusively with passerines since 1999. She is director and founder of Native Songbird Care and Conservation (NSCC), located in Sebastopol, California. NSCC is a state and federally permitted wildlife rehabilitation facility and cares for approximately 1000 songbirds each year. Veronica teaches songbird rehabilitation workshops and species-specific classes to rehabilitators throughout North America. During the winter, she can be found in Central and South America birding and studying migratory songbirds in the field. Her favorite bird is the Cliff Swallow, but all other insectivorous and migratory passerines run a very close second.

Andrew Bowkett started his career studying enrichment and visitor effects in primates as a student at Paignton Zoo in Devon, England. He subsequently switched focus to field-based conservation and research projects overseas, including working hands-on with endangered birds in Mauritius and a PhD on Tanzanian duikers. He currently coordinates conservation projects in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia, and supervises zoo-based research on birds, reptiles, and amphibians back at Paignton Zoo. Andrew holds honorary teaching and research positions at the Universities of Plymouth and Exeter, is a member of the IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group, and chairs the Field Conservation Committee of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Nikki Buxton is a founder-Director of Belize Bird Rescue (BBR). The facility was created in 2004, and BBR has been working with the Belize Forest Department since then to reduce or eliminate the illegal trade in wild-caught parrots. BBR has developed an innovative rehabilitation program for former-captive and hand-reared wild parrots with documented results addressing inappropriate diet, husbandry-related conditions, and adverse behaviors through careful flock-building, enclosure management, and nutrition. Parrots soft-released following rehabilitation at BBR are documented thriving and breeding in the wild. BBR also hand-rears endangered Yellow-headed Amazon chicks, releasing over 100 back into the wild since the program began in 2014.

Laurie Conrad began her career in aviculture and rehabilitation in 1989 at SeaWorld in San Diego. Her hand-rearing experience includes small mammals and numerous exotic bird species. Laurie represented SeaWorld in the collaborative Light-footed Clapper Rail recovery conservation program from 2001 to 2018. She served on several Association of Zoos and Aquarium Taxon Advisory Group steering committees, presented at numerous conferences, and coordinated two North American Species Survival Programs. Laurie co-organized the Third International Flamingo Symposium in 2014 and acted as the IUCN Flamingo Specialist Group Ex situ Coordinator for North America. Laurie also worked at the San Diego Zoo Global Avian Propagation Center, where she specialized in hand-rearing and incubation.

Kateri J. Davis lives with her husband in Oregon, USA, and together they run the Davis Lund Aviaries where they specialize in raising and breeding a large variety of softbilled birds. Kateri has been involved with birds her entire life and has been working with softbills since the early 1990s. She currently has about 130 birds of 25 different species in her aviaries and ships offspring to zoos and other private aviculturists around the USA. She is the author of the Birdhouse Publication books Turacos in Aviculture and Mousebirds in Aviculture, and has written many softbill articles for publication in magazines and journals.

Rebecca S. Duerr is the clinical veterinarian and research director at International Bird Rescue's two wildlife clinics in California. After earning a BS in marine biology from San Francisco State University, she completed DVM, MPVM, and PhD degrees at UC Davis, with graduate work on the care of oiled Common Murres and on the nutritional energetics and physiology of Common Murres and Western Grebes. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association and is a frequent speaker at avian and wildlife conferences. She enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for how incredibly cool and strange birds are with the world, and particularly loves repairing birds that have been injured by the unfortunate actions of humans.

Maureen Eiger is the Director and founder of Help Wild Birds, Roanoke, Virginia's only nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation organization that exclusively rehabilitates all species of migratory birds. She holds state and federal wildlife rehabilitation permits, and has been rehabilitating birds for over 10?years. She is a contributing writer to the North American Bluebird Society Journal, the Roanoke Star Newspaper, various Audubon and bird club newsletters, and the blog 10?000 Birds. Maureen teaches classes about birds at state wildlife conferences, bird clubs, colleges, Master Naturalists, and other organizations. Maureen is an avid birder; she was Vice President of the Roanoke Valley Bird Club and a Virginia Bluebird Society Board Member. One can say her life is very "birdy."

Nancy Eilertsen has been a wildlife rehabilitator since 1988. She is the founder and director of East Valley Wildlife based in Phoenix, Arizona, and is state and federally licensed. She is a coauthor of A Flying Chance passerine rehabilitation manual.

Elizabeth Penn (Penny) Elliston earned a MSc at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, now the Bloomberg School, and has worked with epidemiological teams in India and Africa. One of the founders of Wildlife Rescue of New Mexico, she has been working with hummingbirds and other avian species since 1980. She has authored and coauthored a number of papers on hummingbird growth, care, and behavior.

Meryl Faulkner was a full-time home care volunteer with Project Wildlife, a rehabilitation group in San Diego County, for more than 20?years, and is currently retired. She raised and rehabilitated various avian species, and also skunks, but specialized in sea and shorebirds. She captive-reared and rehabilitated California Least Terns and Western Snowy Plovers (sometimes hatched from salvaged eggs) for local, state, and federal agencies.

Mark Finke has worked in the area of comparative animal nutrition for more than 30?years and has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles on nutrition in insects, birds, mammals, and reptiles. He has a PhD from the University of Wisconsin with a dual major in nutritional sciences and entomology....