Natomas Rookery

Natomas Rookery

These are photos taken at a rookery in Sacramento, CA. The rookery is at an apartment complex in Natomas off of Truxel, near I80. I've spoken to several people, including tenants and wildlife experts, about the situation but I still have a lot of questions. It seems the birds were nesting there before the apartment complex was built, 20+ years ago. Last year was the worst as far as the number of nesting pairs and babies falling out of the nests and dying. It's normal for babies to fall out of the nests but the nests are usually in an area where people aren't around. The parents can continue to care for some of the babies who fall but this area is dangerous with all of the cars, people, and domestic animals around. I know of 3 kinds of birds here, Black-Crowned Night Heron, Snowy Egret, and Cattle Egret...

A group of volunteers go out each morning and afternoon to rescue any fallen babies. We box them up and take them to Wildlife Care Association.

If you have any info about the species or the situation at this apartment complex, please comment on a photo or sign the guest book.

Some of these photos are taken with a camera and some are cell phone shots. I use "him", "he" and "his" when talking about the birds but I don't know any of their genders...

Summer 2015Showing 1-42 of 869351 visitsAlbum by Heather StrellaPhotos by Heather and/or Denis Strella

Young Egret		"Teen" Black-Crowned Night Heron...
		A magnolia tree with many nesting birds...
Just an example of the damage the birds are doing....	This is one of the first babies we found. He's at an age that if he wasn't injured, he'd be left there. This little one had an injury to his foot or leg so we took him to WCA.
		Snowy Egret nesting....

Cattle Egret


Adult Black-Crowned Night Heron		The following are cell phone snapshots of some of the rescues....
Hatchling egret, the smallest I've found to date. He didn't seem injured but I don't know if he was able to be saved....	Very young Black-Crowned Night Heron	We started putting containers of water out for the babies since it's so hot here in Sacramento...this "teenager" took advantage of the cool water by standing it it for a long time. :-)
One of the "teen" Black-Crowned Night Heron chicks, safe and sound in his tree....	I found this very young egret resting behind the wheel of this car on a very hot day. I think he just wanted out of the sun and plopped himself down as soon as he was in the shade.
My husband found this poor egret in a dumpster. The trees sprawl out over the streets, lawns, carports, and even the dumpsters. It's likely this guy fell out of his nest and into the garbage. Hubby was able to rescue him and take him to Wildlife Care.	A "teen" Black-Crowned Night Heron standing on an electrical box. His tree was right by this box and he was desperate to get back up in the nest/tree....	A very young egret found very cold under a parked car. He's resting on the seat with the seat heater on....
		One of the "teen" heron safe in his tree....
ADORABLE photo by Stephanie Valdez