This Western Tanager has been on cage rest since suffering from a shoulder injury. He is due to be released this weekend! In the meantime, he is checking his chart to make sure everything is how it should be! Good job Dr. Tanager!

Once the leaves start budding and the flowers begin to bloom, the spring migrants return to nest. Greenwood will start to receive over 100 different types of birds throughout the summer; most of them babies who need a little head-start before being released.

Other reasons birds are admitted include collisions with windows and cars, broken bones and animal attacks including their biggest unnatural enemy the domestic cat.

“Veterinarians who work at rehabilitation centers see the subsequent damage to small mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles: puncture and bite wounds, skin torn open or ripped away, feathers pulled off. Sometimes the wound may be nearly invisible or appear minor, but the animal will soon die from infection, says Dr. Roberto Aguilar, wildlife veterinarian at The HSUS’s Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable, Mass.”

To learn more why it’s important to keep you cats indoors, visit the Humane Society of the United States page.