(WXYZ) — From the outside, 336 E. Goulson Avenue in Hazel Park looks like any typical house, but inside you’ll find a safe haven where birds that are sick or injured are given a second chance to fly.
Wild Wings Bird Rehabilitation and Louie’s Loft is also home to the nonprofit’s owner and director Marg Sapp. She saw a need in her community and officially opened in 2015.
“We started off with cat carriers and heating pads and no incubators and no anything. And I had one volunteer and we thought we were insane, because we had 40 birds and we were like freaking out because we didn't know what we were going to do,” said Sapp.
But they did know what to do — and they still do, growing in volunteers and in the number of birds they are able to take in.
Click here to donate and learn more about Wild Wings.
“We get anywhere from 600 to 1,000 birds a year. Our average is around 800. We get about 120 to 150 calls a day that we triage,” she said.
Birds that have lost their way either due to illness or injury are given another chance to soar here.
“We take songbirds, which is sort of an umbrella term for pretty much anything that's in your backyard. So your sparrows, starlings, blue jays, robins, bluebirds, woodpeckers ... we don't take birds of prey or waterfowl,” said Sapp.
It's a herculean effort that shows in the number of winged ones they are able to save.
“Our survival rate is about 85%, which is insane. The national average is like 44% or something like that with birds. So we are like really, really proud of that and we've never dropped below 80% in the entire time that we've been open,” she said.
There's also Louie's Loft Pigeon Sanctuary and Rescue, a branch of Wild Wings that focuses on the care, adoption, and sanctuary for pigeons. Wild Wings has reportedly helped over 200 pigeons find loving homes.
Sapp’s dedicated base of volunteers shares in the passion to save the birds.
“They're one of the most biodiverse species on the planet. Preserving that is in and of itself extremely important ... I think people tend to view them as pests, but they have an extremely important role in the ecosystem,” said volunteer Jesse Griebel.
Kim Meggison, a longtime volunteer, said she is a bird person.
“I have a fondness for all of this. All of them,” Meggison said.
And it’s that love that keeps them showing up every day; Sapp says Wild Wings is run by volunteers and entirely on donations.
“No state funding, no federal funding. We are completely volunteer ran. I have no paid staff. I don't even pay myself, can't afford to. We obviously run out of my home. We desperately need more space. Right now we are pretty much maxed out every year and we have to turn birds away,” she said.
But through the challenges that come along with bird rehabilitation — come the rewards.
“So birds don't thank you in the sense of like, you know, a person thanking you … we don't get birds because something is going right in their life. We get birds that are like this little guy that was held by somebody that wasn't permitted and fed bananas for ten days. And he came in with really bad malnutrition and we didn't think he was going to make it, and just to see him like hopping around, being a goofball now, it's pretty awesome,” said Sapp.
Sapp said if you're able to put a baby bird back in a nest, you should.
"The myth that if you touch it, the mom's not going to come back needs to go away. The best thing to do is if you can find the nest is to put the baby back in the nest, if it's safe for you to do so, because the mom will return to the nest," she said.
If you find an injured bird, Marg says don’t try to feed it. The most important thing you can do, she said, is keep it warm and get it to a rehabber.
Tips from the organization’s website:
· Open 10am-8pm 7 days a week March 1 to October 1. (May close temporarily if at capacity.)
· Songbird intakes closed October to March, Pigeon intakes open all year round
· DO NOT leave birds on the porch without notice, or give food, water, or milk.DO call/text ahead, and bring birds in a closed, ventilated box or paper bag.
· FOR THE FASTEST RESPONSE, PLEASE TEXT US WITH A PICTURE OF THE BIRD IN QUESTION!
To learn more about Wild Wings Bird Rehabilitation and Louie’s Loft, click here.
