Help Build an Avian Release Center for Congress of the Birds

Hi friends!

My name is Sheida Soleimani, and I am the Founder and Executive Director of Congress of the Birds, which is Rhode Island’s only avian rehabilitation center dedicated to saving injured and orphaned birds through rehabilitative care, education, advocacy, and conservation.

*getting ready to examine an injured Great Horned Owl, photo by Jessica Rinaldi for The Boston Globe

Though I started out on my own, we’ve expanded rapidly, no more so than in the past year, in which we’ve become a 501(c)3 organization (long overdue!), trained over 50 volunteers (thank you!), received over 2,000 avian patients, and, incredibly, received a donation of 42 acres of secluded woodlands in Chepachet, Rhode Island, where we plan to build a release center for the rehabilitated birds in our care.

A release center means that our rehabilitated patients will have the best chance of success once released into the wild. And to create a release center means we need to build aviaries and flight enclosures. One major purpose of these aviaries is to help birds build up their pectoral flight muscles. Without proper conditioning, a bird may not be able to survive if it’s “hard-released” into the wild. A large flight aviary—ranging in size from 10’ long for a small-to-medium-sized songbird, 20’ for a small raptor, 40 to 60’ for large raptors, and 100’ + for an eagle—allows for birds to be properly conditioned and sometimes “soft released.” In other words, they get to practice flying. And they get to acclimate to their habitat, before going out on their own.

*a nestling Red-Shouldered Hawk in our clinic

During their pre-release time, our avian guests will get to know the surrounding environment. After as little as a week and as long as two months (great horned owls are slow learners!), we open the aviary door to let them come and go as they please. After a few days, after learning to find their way, they set out into the world, free, autonomous, and wild.

Help us make these dreams come true so that we can give our native and migratory wild birds a chance to live in a world that helps them rather than hurts them. This is our first fundraiser, and we would be honored if you can help us build five of a proposed 20 enclosures before May 2025.

*A Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher patient we had this summer! She weighed less than a penny!

We are fortunate that every dollar you give will be 100% matched by a private donor (this is HUGE for us)!

We also should mention that we are not state funded and have no institutional or corporate donors, but rely exclusively on donations from our community and from people like you.

Congress of the Birds is 24/7: we never turn away an injured or orphaned bird, and our volunteers help us pick up birds from around the state.

If you are able to give something, we would be so grateful. Your gift will help us keep up our momentum and solve our biggest problem, which is a lack of flight enclosures across the state in which injured birds can rebuild their pectoral flight muscles and juvenile birds can learn to fly. These spaces — ranging in size from 20’ L to 100’ L for an eagle enclosure — give these birds the best chance possible to succeed in the wild. Did we mention that we’re a 501(c)3 organization and that all donations are tax deductible?

We truly appreciate our community, friends, and family. All that we’ve accomplished so far—and will accomplish—wouldn’t be possible without you.

*releasing an American Robin at the land this past August, photo by Rachel Maeve

My Story

I started rehabbing wildlife with my maman, a political refugee who was a nurse back in our home country of I r an. After seeking refugee status and moving to the United States, she was unable to continue nursing, even though she still wanted to care for and nurture people. With one route blocked, she found another, and started volunteering at a local wildlife rehabilitation center near our home in the corn fields in Loveland, Ohio. I was raised with the wild animals she rehabilitated—an opossum or a raccoon one week, a woodpecker or a mockingbird the next—and this is how rehabilitating animals became a passion of my own.

I became a Rhode Island state-licensed wildlife rehabilitator in 2015, shortly after moving here and realizing that this is what was missing in my life. In 2020, I became one of very few Federally Licensed Migratory Bird Rehabilitators in the state. For the past decade, I’ve been working as a home rehabber, receiving calls from anyone and everyone in the state and directing them to drop off animals on my porch.

*examining a Carolina Wren who was caught in a glue trap, photo by Jessica Rinaldi for The Boston Globe

In 2018, I founded Congress of the Birds after realizing that the few bird rehabilitators in the state were aging out or burning out. I am one of the only rehabilitators in the state that rehabs and releases birds, and the only one who does so in such high numbers. Each year since, we’ve taken in more and more birds, and begun training volunteers to help care for them. I strongly believe that caring for animals must be a collective responsibility and not something to do alone. I’m so lucky to be supported by our community and so incredibly grateful for all the support we have gotten so far.

* 'Safekeeping', a photo from my series 'Ghostwriter' - My maman's hand feeds a nest of baby robins that were in our care

The Land

In May, we received a donation of 42 acres of pristine and secluded woodlands and wetlands in northwestern Rhode Island. This is the perfect place to build a release center for all of our birds who are ready to get back to the wild! This is a game changer for us—and for the birds. These woods are home to so many rare species of birds, and the perfect habitat for us to release our rehabbed birds into.

*a TINY Ruby-Throated Hummingbird nestling that was in our care this past season

Donations

I’m not one to ask for help, but on behalf of the birds in my care, and our small new organization, I would be foolish to not ask for it. We need all the help we can get!

Our current facilities limit our ability to provide flight conditioning for our birds. To recap, the enclosures at the land center will:

Provide a spacious environment for conditioning and exercise

Feature knitted steel mesh and wood slats to protect birds' feathers from damage (enclosures that damage feather condition dramatically reduce a bird’s chances at surviving.

Enhance rehabilitation outcomes for all species of birds by releasing them into an environment far from human interference

*Donation Tiers:*

Nestling ($10-$49)

Fledgling ($50-$99)

Flight ($100-$499)

Winged Guardian ($500-$999)

Avian Angel ($1,000+)

Stretch Goals

If by a magic stroke of the wand we are able to reach our goals, here are some other major needs that we want to solve:

$75,000: Expand our Elmwood rehab facility so that we can better rehabilitate sea birds and shore birds; build specialty tubs and enclosures. This is the Ocean State, after all!!

$100,000: We need a staff! We would love to be able to hire our most trusted senior members of our volunteer team to become permanent employees.

*Jonathan and I getting ready to force feed a debilitated Cooper's Hawk, photo by Rachel Maeve

What You Can Also Do

*Share Our Fundraiser:* Spread the word about Congress of the Birds on social media and by word-of-mouth so that we can protect and preserve our feathered friends.

Encourage your friends to follow us @congress.of.the.birds on Instagram

*the land!!!