SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP — The Ohio Bird Sanctuary can now provide large, peaceful enclosures to its traveling birds away from the general public.
“It gives these birds time to relax when they get back from programming,” said OBS program coordinator Abby Yates.
“When they’re on display, they’re kind of watching out for things, so this space will be a really nice haven for them.”
The Avian Encounters Area is located near the Naturescape playground but fenced off and away from other areas open to the public.
Avian encounters will be mostly closed to the public, but open on certain weekends and to field trip groups.
“We’ll be able to do really cool things like free flying and being more interactive, which the kids seem to really enjoy,” Yates said. “Seeing these birds do their natural behaviors really helps inspire people to care about the species we have.”
The Mansfield Noon Optimist Club is sponsoring a stage for handlers to present birds and free flight shows to tour groups.
Previously housed near the visitor’s center, OBS guests would frequently see the birds while they were home from a school field trip or other travels.
“Having their own area that’s tucked away, and that we can open up for larger school groups on occasion, really helps the birds’ quality of life,” said OBS executive director Julie Schwartz.
“The idea here is the working birds are going to be away from the display birds. When they come back home, we want them to be off display.”
There are 14 enclosures in the Avian Encounters Area for the trained birds.
“Let’s say you come to the sanctuary to enjoy a quiet day in nature and 30 school children disrupt your experience,” Schwartz said.
“We also love the 30 squirrelly school kids, but now we’re able to serve them well and the rest of the public. We can also do right by these birds who are working really hard.”
Bird sanctuary also upgrades visitors center, avian hospital
OBS founder Gail Laux said the improvements have been “a long time coming.”
“The concept of building an area for avian encounters has been a conversation for probably 10 years,” she said.
“We had our birds on display and then would remove them when we needed to, like what a zoo does. We finally said let’s find a spot to build, and the development of how beautiful it is came to fruition about three or four years ago.”
The bird sanctuary’s upgrades also include a refurbished visitors center and Avian Hospital. A Richland Newhope grant supported the installation of an adult changing table in the visitors center.
A renovated and expanded Avian Hospital will also support quicker recovery for a variety of birds that the sanctuary takes in.
“The equipment we have now will be able to diagnose much quicker, which can lead to faster and more accurate treatments,” said curator of animals Amanda Vanderford.
“We have multiple incubators now, thanks to our donors. When we only had one or two, we had to prioritize the most critical patients and move some others, which wasn’t ideal.”
The Ohio Bird Sanctuary serves the entire state, not just with birds but with resources for other animals as well.
“We take phone calls during business hours and we have an after-hours email,” Vanderford said. “If someone finds other wildlife besides birds, our staff is able to give them correct and accurate information and direct them to the closest facility that deals with those species.”
The avian hospital’s expansion includes additional rooms that can house large birds or multiple small birds in enclosures. The hospital also has additional incubators, oxygen support technology and an oxygen analyzer.
“On average we’re taking in 500 birds a year — all native, wild birds,” Schwartz said. “We tend to specialize in raptors and meat-eating birds but we take in songbirds as well.
“We’re proud that we were able to stay open the whole time during this construction too. We never turned a bird away and maintained as much of our operations the whole time as we possibly could.”
The hospital previously didn’t have running water, and staff had to carry water buckets from the visitor center into the hospital area.
“It wasn’t a cosmetic upgrade, it was a functionality upgrade,” Schwartz said. “It happens to look really nice too, but it was really about the functionality.”
The Ohio Bird Sanctuary is located at 3774 Orweiler Road. It is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 2-15, veterans and individuals in assisted care centers. Admission is free for caregivers, sanctuary members and children under 2.
The bird sanctuary is also hosting a fall festival on Oct. 12.
