Cascades Raptor Center needs YOUR help for baby raptors!  
At CRC it is our goal to return healthy baby raptors to their nests and families whenever possible. However, there are times that we are unable to successfully return young birds, such as when they are injured, or the parents are deceased. In these cases, we use a technique called wild fostering, where we place the chick - that would otherwise need to be raised in human care - in a different wild nest with chicks of the same species and of a similar age.  

Why is this important? Wildlife rehabilitators are professionals that raise young birds to be the best possible candidates for release and survival in the wild. However, even the most experienced rehabilitator can never teach everything that a raptor parent can, such as species-specific behaviors, nor provide the long-term support that parental raptors do. Did you know that Great Horned Owl juveniles have been documented to seek support from their parents for over a year after leaving the nest, even once they’ve become fully independent?  

Here's how YOU can help: 

Cascades Raptor Center is seeking reports of active wild raptor nests of all species in the southern Willamette Valley. We are looking for nests on public or private property with the landowner’s permission (especially yard nests that you observe on a regular basis!). 

Important information gathered in this survey that helps our re-nesting team includes: 

• Species

• Number of chicks in the nest if known 

• Age of the chicks at time of report if known (Photos are ideal if feasible without disturbing the nest!) 

• Accessibility of the nest (tree or building type, height, clearance around the nest, etc.). Photos are ideal! 

• Exact nest location (GPS coordinates preferred) 

 Need-to-knows/FAQ answers:  

• Cascades Raptor Center will keep ALL nest sites CONFIDENTIAL during the nesting season. It is essential that the birds are not disturbed so that the young birds have the best chances of being accepted, and so that the parents can rest and perform the extra hunting necessary for successful fostering. The same goes for all nests that we do not utilize for wild fostering. 

• Cascades Raptor Center performs full veterinary examinations on all potential fostering candidates to ensure that no diseases or parasites are introduced to the wild nest.  

• Wild fostering is a minimally disruptive endeavor that utilizes natural history and clutch size to ensure that the parents of the wild nest are not overburdened by the requirements of an extra mouth to feed. Disturbance of the nest is minimal, with one brief ascent to the nest to introduce the nestling and then only brief visits to monitor from a distance to ensure acceptance of the new nestling.  

• Wild fostering can be done at a range of ages, from newly hatched birds to ‘branchers,’ the age where birds naturally begin to leave the nest and explore. Having a variety of different nests available helps us find a good match for a chick of any age.  

• Please do not send nest reports for nests on private property unless you yourself are the landowner or you have explicit permission to do so from the landowner and can share both your and their contact information. We want to be intensely respectful to the owners of private property. We will not share any contact information other than the sole exception of directly coordinating the fostering with individual members of our staff and volunteer re-nesting team.  

• Once we have fostered in a new bird, we welcome your ongoing participation by monitoring the nest from afar and letting us know about any changes or concerns in the nest. We can intervene if things do not go well, such as a chick falling out of the nest again (some just don’t learn the first time!) 

• We also ask for your ongoing assistance after your report by being available for a call or email if we need to ask any further questions about the nest site or to communicate regarding site access. 

• Due to the number of young American Barn Owls we receive into care, we are especially interested in buildings with active nests of this species. We frequently get large numbers of this species when nests are accidentally taken away from their parents during agricultural operations (i.e. the owls nested in hay bales that are then trucked to other areas).  

• Due to their natural history, we are also especially interested in Great Horned Owl nests, as this species has one of the longest parental care periods and subsequently benefits the most from wild fostering.  

• DISCLAIMER: Wild foster situations can be uncommon, as our primary goal is to reunite young raptors with their original family. Between this, and the importance of finding a good match with size and age, we cannot guarantee we will use every nest. This does not diminish your involvement by submitting this information. Collecting a wide range of nest options gives us the best chance of having an optimal match for potential wild fostering babies. Even if we do not use your local raptor nest, having this information available is incredibly helpful to us and helps us reach our goal of 100% of our baby raptor patients being raised by wild parents. 

Please feel free to reach out directly to Jesse Pline CWR, Senior Rehabilitation Technician and lead of the re-nesting/re-uniting program at jesse@cascadesraptorcenter.org if you have any questions about this project.  

Found an injured bird or a baby raptor out of its nest too early? Call our wildlife hotline at 541-485-1320 ext. 1