Aardvark Tree Services strives to protect and help our indigenous wildlife in your garden.

Special care is taken of our birdlife and their nesting areas.

We recently carefully removed a barbet's nesting log from a damaged dead tree and re-located it to a nearby healthy tree, within minutes the barbet parents were continuing to feed their hungry brood!!

Orphans are rescued and taken as soon as possible to the Friends of Free Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in Kyalami

www.freewildlife.co.za 

Please call: Margi 082 561 3681 or Wendy: 083 302 2181 for advice

  How to Rescue Baby Birds (from the Friends of Free Wildlife website) 

  (Only  adults should rescue baby birds. Before rescuing adult birds, seek guidance       from  a wildlife rehabilitator.)

1. Prepare the container. Place a clean, soft  cloth with no strings or loops on the bottom of a cardboard box or cat/dog  carrier with lid. If it doesn’t have air holes, make some. For smaller birds you  can use a paper sack with air holes.
2. Protect yourself. Wear gloves, if possible.  Some birds may stab with their beaks, slice with their talons (claws) and slap  with their wings to protect themselves, even if sick; some birds commonly have  parasites (fleas, lice, ticks) and carry diseases.
3. Cover the bird with a light sheet or  towel.
4. Gently pick up the bird and put it into the prepared  container.
5. Warm the bird if the weather is cold or if the bird is  chilled. Put one end of the container on a heating pad set on low. Or  fill a zip-top plastic bag, plastic soft drink bottle with a screw lid, hot  water bottle or rubber glove with hot water; wrap warm container with cloth and  put next to bird. Make sure the container doesn’t leak, or the bird will get wet  and chilled.
6. Tape the box shut or roll the top of the bag  closed.
7. Note exactly where you found the bird. This  will be very important for release.
8. Keep the bird in a warm, dark, quiet place.  Don’t give it food or water, Leave the bird alone, don’t bother or  handle it, keep children and pets away
9. Contact a wildlife rehabilitator, nature conservation  department or wildlife veterinarian as soon as possible. Don’t keep the  bird at your home longer than is necessary. Keep the bird in a container; don’t  let it loose in your house or car.
10. Wash your hands after contact with the bird.  Wash anything the bird was in contact with – towel, jacket, blanket,  pet carrier – to prevent the spread of diseases and/or parasites to you or your  pets.
11. Get the bird to a wildlife rehabilitator as soon as  possible. If you are unable to get it help after a few hours, put a small bowl of water in the container. You do not have to feed it until the next day if it has access to water.