Cleaning Oiled Birds

There are more than 1600 naturally ocurring oil seeps bubbling up from the ocean floor off California - the equivalent of a massive year-round oil spill. Local birds seem to stay away from these seeps, but migrating loons and grebes often get trapped in them.  And if they are lucky, they are brought to our Center for help and treatment.

Cleaning oil-soaked animals is a very labor intensive process requiring many hours of work per animal. Many do not survive, either dying from hypothermia, or toxicity from ingesting crude oil while attempting to clean the substance off their bodies.

Oiled birds brought to the Network are given medication to combat the toxicity of ingested oil.

Next they are fed and kept warm under a heat lamp. When they have been stabilized, they are bathed in warm mineral oil to loosen the crude oil.

Then they undergo several detergent washes and fresh water rinses until all traces of crude oil, mineral oil, and detergent are gone.

A bird may undergo many washings over the course of several days until the waterproofing in their feathers is restored.

This Pacific loon was successfully cleaned and sent on to continue his winter journey. We hope that this most ancient bird on earth will continue to find a place on our planet for a long time to come.

Cleaning oiled loons is especially challenging because they are amongst the wildest of beings and perish quickly in captivity. The great feather density that insulates them from Alaska weather also makes restoring their waterproofing a very difficult task.

But without this effort they are most certainly doomed to die, as happened to this unfortunate young common loon.