(bright music) - Hi, I'm Karen Kalunian, and today, we're gonna talk about wild bird rehabilitation.

♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh ♪ - We are here with Pam Hood from Sweet Binks here in Foster, Rhode Island, and she does a lot of bird rehabilitation, all types of birds, even owls.

And currently, she has an owl on the property that she's working with, and I wanted her to sort of talk us through the process of what she does once the injured bird comes in and then up until the point where she actually releases it back into the wild.

So, Pam, we've gotten to see the owl, and we're gonna show some of the owl, but tell us a little bit about how that owl came to you as sort of an example of what you do.

- So I got a call that there was a hit by car owl on I-395.

I have a federal permit, so I can take, you know, but is was very close by.

And fortunately, a finder was able to contain the owl, who's head injury, very hurt.

And she got him to me ASAP, which was key to his recovery and something I really wanna stress to people when they find especially hit by cars birds or any human impact bird, is get 'em to a rehabber ASAP.

We have the medications.

We have the know-how to potentially- - [Karen] Help them.

- Help them.

So getting 'em into our care quickly, and this owl got to me very quickly.

He was labor intensive for about a week, tube feeding, medications, all that.

We took him to the vet.

We had his eye tested.

He's very fortunate.

He had no broken bones.

His eye is healing.

- [Karen] His wings are fine.

- His wings are good.

His feet are good.

He will be releasable soon.

But again, it was key that he got to me so quickly.

- Like so many others though that people don't.

They think, "Oh, we can just wait a little while and sort of watch it and see if it takes back off again on its own," but when they- - I've had people take birds home, put 'em in their bathroom for a couple of days, and they don't survive.

Again, it's crucial.

Well, just like a human, if you have a severe injury or accident- - You need to get help.

- You need to get medical attention quick.

- Right away, right, right away.

- And for wildlife, that's me and other wildlife rehabilitators.

So I'm very, very excited and pleased that this great horned owl pulled through wonderfully and will be released.

I'm just ecstatic and over the moon for it.

Most of the raptors that we get come in and even the songbirds, they are human impact, outdoor cats, hit by cars, glue traps and all that.

- Wire, netting.

- The mesh netting, the wire garden netting, there's a million ways wildlife gets injured, but it's pretty much always human impact.

Well, it's a tribute to you and all of the work that you do here.

I'm sure that you are up morning, noon and night making sure that that owl has some proper medication- - Absolutely, absolutely.

- [Karen] And tube feeding, and people don't understand all the work that you really do.

It's painstaking, but it's so rewarding.

- Blood, sweat, and tears.

- [Karen] Yes, so rewarding because hopefully, you'll be filming when that owl takes flight, and we'll be looking forward to that.

- Yeah, I'm very excited about that.

- I don't blame you.

Thanks again, Pam.

- Thank you.

- [Karen] To watch more videos like this, visit ripbs.org/animal talk.