Charity for the Birds

Birds blackened with crude oil accidentally spilled into the seas present some of the most haunting images of how humans can spoil the natural world. Just such a disaster in 1971 — when two tankers collided and spilled 900,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay — sparked the creation of the International Bird Rescue Research Center.

But the center has since found that thousands of aquatic birds each year also needed its aid after being harmed in more prosaic ways: oil from jet skis, motorboats, and storm drains tar their feathers, fishing lines entangle them, and ducklings get trapped in swimming pools.

The group operates rehabilitation centers in Northern and Southern California, as well as a facility in Anchorage that responds to oil spills in Alaska. It has sent workers as far away as Cape Town and the Galapagos Islands, aiding some 300,000 birds since its inception. And each year, more than 30,000 schoolchildren take part in the group’s educational programs on how to create a healthy environment for marine life.

Over the years, the center has developed innovative techniques for cleaning feathers and for providing the birds with sanitary housing. As a result, the group has been able to increase the birds’ survival rates, from 16 percent for the first oil spill it worked on to between 50 and 80 percent.

The oil industry pays for a third of the group’s $1.2-million annual budget, led by ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil corporations. Most of the remaining money comes from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, in Yarmouth Port, Mass., and from state governments. Here, Coleen Doucette, the group’s rehabilitation manager, examines a pelican at the Northern California center.