Flight cage for Wildlife Rescue of Dade County

North America has lost a quarter of its bird population – about 3 billion birds – in the past 50 years. You may feel despair at some of the factors – habitat loss, climate change, attacks from non-native animals. But there IS something you can do that will directly help South Florida birds fly free again!

Wildlife Rescue of Dade County, which took in 421 animals in 2019 and has a release-to-the-wild rate of 42%, needs your help to build a flight cage! The new flight cage will allow WRDC to flight-test and rehabilitate larger birds, such as birds of prey, herons, and egrets, that need a larger area to exercise after rehabilitation and before release back to the wild. For example, a Peregrine Falcon hunts on the wing, so we need to film it flying then slow down the video in order to determine if it flies perfectly, prior to release in order to assure the best chance of survival for the falcon.

The new flight cage will exceed the standards set by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, for the largest birds that we commonly rehabilitate here in South Florida. These include Bald Eagles, Brown Pelicans, Turkey Vultures, and Ospreys (like the one on our cover photo). It will help us flight test injured birds, as well as birds that we take in as orphans and hand raise. The requirements for these birds are a flight cage 100 feet long by 20 feet wide by 16 feet high. Our new flight cage will exceed the standards: 100 feet long, 24 feet wide, and 16 feet high. We are building the flight cage under permits from Miami-Dade County.

The new flight cage will serve many more birds than just the birds at Wildlife Rescue of Dade County. Because it will be the only flight cage southeast of Orlando, Florida, it will serve ANY wildlife rehabilitation center that wants to flight test a bird, at no charge. No matter which is your favorite local rehab in Miami-Dade, Broward, or Monroe County, donating towards the construction of this flight cage will help ALL the Southeast Florida wildlife rehabilitation centers.

Wildlife Rescue of Dade County is a registered 501c(3) nonprofit. Our mission is to rescue and rehabilitate native wildlife. We exist entirely on donations, have no paid staff, no overhead, and do not charge for our services. We receive NO funding from the government. We are entirely staffed by volunteers and receive free or discounted services from awesome local veterinarians. Our Board Members include world-famous wildlife expert Ron Magill, veterinarian Dr. Paula Rodriguez, and Director of Marathon Wild Bird Center Kelly Ginter.

We won’t be able to make this vision of a flight cage for our rehab birds a reality without you! Won’t you join us in bringing this vision to reality? Any gift will help and gifts of $100 or more are especially appreciated, to help us reach our goal of $36,000. Should we raise more funds than the cost of the flight cage, the funds will go to convert a shed on the property to a much-needed kitchen and laundry area for the organization – we are currently using our home for that purpose. The shed needs electricity and plumbing lines and shelves. Any donations left after that will go directly towards animal care – formula, medicine, food, heating pads, etc. We really need your donations to make the flight cage a reality.

HOW TO DONATE: Please donate directly to Wildlife Rescue of Dade County via PayPal to paypal.me/wildliferescueofdade, via Venmo to username @Wildlife-RescueOfDadeCounty, via CashApp to $wildliferescue, or donate to this GoFundMe.

We will be posting updates as the construction progresses! Please LIKE and SHARE this post so others can see and contribute!