Wildlife – Bird Care
We need your help to provide a caring and safe environment for all of the animal casualties that come into our busy bird section.
Why we need you
We need your help to provide a caring and safe environment for all of the animal casualties that come into our busy bird section. As well as small wild birds you will help to care for corvids and pigeons. We have a duty that animals receive the best of care in our wildlife centre, with the highest standards of cleanliness and animal husbandry.
How much time do you need to be able to give?
A minimum of 8 hours per month – for example two half days per month.
What will you be doing?
- Volunteers will be expected to assist with general cleaning of centre, including laundry, corridors, dishes and power washing aviaries. Cleaning tasks will take a large proportion of daily workload, therefore volunteers must be willing to undertake reasonable cleaning tasks as directed by a member of the team.
- Assist with cleaning of casualty accommodation. This will mainly include the nestlings room, finch room, pigeon holding rooms and corvids room. This will involve handling the casualties. A volunteer may undertake these duties unsupervised once fully trained. Appropriate PPE should be used at all times.
- With further training, supervision and sign-off from an appropriate staff member, a volunteer may also assist in the cleaning of the gull room and outside aviaries. Appropriate PPE should be used at all times.
- After a suitable period of training (3-6 months), volunteers may assist with feeding of wildlife casualties (small birds, pigeons & corvids) as directed by staff team. Volunteers will not be involved in tube feeding casualties unless agreed by staff and management and determined on an individual basis. Appropriate PPE should be used at all times.
- Volunteers will not attend to casualties requiring medication or veterinary treatment (as indicated by “Meds” and “Vet check” labels) unless specifically requested to do so by an appropriate member of the staff team. Volunteers can however clean the casualties’ enclosure if directed to by staff.
- Volunteers may be requested to accompany/assist a member of staff with the release of a recovered casualty, whether on site or at a specific release site.
- Volunteers may undertake any other reasonable general duties as directed by the centre management team, provided that appropriate training is provided.
What skills do you need?
- Commitment to animal welfare and a resilient, calm approach
- Excellent attention to detail, consistent
- Flexible
- Good at working as part of a team
- Will follow instructions closely
- Awareness of the need to take care of personal health & safety as well as that of others
- Happy to participate in training as relevant to the role
What will you gain from being a volunteer?
- This is a unique opportunity to gain experience of working with small wild birds, pigeons/doves and corvids, contributing to their care and rehabilitation.
- You will be part of a dedicated team, contributing to the care and rehabilitation of Scotland’s wildlife in need.
Further information related to this role
We recommend that you have an anti-tetanus vaccination before undertaking this role. You will be required to wear appropriate PPE when working in the bird rooms, which
includes a filter mask.
Role Profile
| Volunteer Role | Wildlife (Bird Care) |
| Volunteer Manager | Centre Management Team |
| Where you will be based | Other |
Current Opportunities
For a full list of available vacancies in your area, please visit our volunteering portal:
Find out more or join the volunteering waiting list
Please send us a message from the General Enquiries form on our Contact Us page, selecting ‘Volunteering’ from the dropdown menu.
Support us from £5 a month
It costs us £63,000 every day to continue the work that animals across Scotland depend on. Our work is only possible because of the generosity of people like you.
