Drought conditions are having a potentially deadly effect on birds at the Santa Fe Raptor Center.
Birds should be a couple of months old by now, according to natural cycles. But Lori Paras of the Raptor Center said there hasn’t been enough food, and adults didn’t breed when they should have.
After 15 years of rehabbing birds, Paras has never seen birds born this late before.
“There's a worry because you're seeing the world change, and they do bird counts and they're declining,” she said.
Late-blooming birds may not be strong or developed enough to survive a migration south this fall, something that concerns Paras.
She has begun rehabbing birds to prepare them for the wild by building muscles, training the birds to kill and getting them out at the right place and time to make the trip.
The Raptor Center is caring for more birds than ever this year and is in desperate need of financial help. A foundation has said it will match any donations made.