About Us
Corvid Aid is a small, independently run corvid sanctuary. We aim to rescue and rehabilitate all corvids in need of our help. The sanctuary is based in West Yorkshire, England and is run by Vanessa Blackburn and her partner Jason Bastow.
Vanessa started rescuing wild birds at the age of 13 and often brought home all kinds of waifs and strays to nurse back to health and life. She also spent two years working at a local wildlife sanctuary - this being where she gained most of her knowledge about the rescue and rehabilitation of British wildlife. She has over 15 years of valued rescue experience.
At Corvid Aid, we have always held a love for crows and other corvids and felt that they did not deserve the reputation that they seem to have aquired. We were alarmed to find that a lot of wildlife rescue centres, not to mention average members of the public, tend to turn a blind-eye to helping corvids, so we decided to try and change this. For over a year now, we have dedicated our time to rescuing corvids. Incidentally, we do still take other species of British wildlife, but obviously this is limited and usually only in an emergency.
Our main aim is to rescue and rehabilitate corvids; and to swiftly return them to the wild, wherever possible. All our birds are ringed with our telephone number before being released, so that if they do run into any trouble, we hope that people will get in touch with us. Ringing also helps to deter people from killing the birds, which unfortunately is still a common occurence given that farmers and gamekeepers consider them to be vermin.
We feel that this is a misconception as corvids do more good than harm. If they are in the fields, they normally feed on the bugs that eat the crops rather than the crop itself. They also clear the roads of dead animals which have been killed by oncoming traffic. And whilst it is true that corvids take wild bird eggs and young birds to feed their own young, domestic cats do far more damage to the songbird population by killing not only the young birds, but the breeding adults as well.
Sometimes we have birds that cannot be released back into the wild for various reasons such as a severe disability or if it has become too attached to the people taking care of it (an imprint). We do not put any bird down, unless it cannot possibly maintain itself even in captivity.
Information about our current permanent residents can be found in the meet our wildlife section. Other unreleasable birds are found special homes as we prefer to give preference to people who will use them for educational purposes as well as giving them the quality of life they deserve.
We are currently in the process of registering as a charity and we believe we will be the first British rescue centre for corvids. In the future, we hope to have an educational programme where people can learn about corvids and just how intelligent they can be. Hopefully, this will help to dispel any myths people might have aquired.
Crows deserve the same treatment and respect as all our British wildlife. Crows need friends too!