Hudson bird rehabilitation centre celebrates 20th anniversary with new $1.2M facility

A 200-year-old barn can now be used for storage instead of shelter as Le Nichoir Wild Bird Rehabilitation Centremoves its operations to a new $1.2 million centre in time for its20th anniversary.

Hudson's Le Nichoir has been saving injured and orphaned birds and struggling through the winter with a drafty, unheated old barn.

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Every winter the bird sanctuary would have to relocate to a site that actually had heating.

"It's a big change for us to have a new facility in order to be able to offer better services to the public and to stay warm during the winter," Susan Wylie, executive director of Le Nichoir, told CBC News. "It will be nice."

The team would pack up their equipment and birds and move into a rented space before the cold weather settled in.

The new centre is not only a heated, year-round facility, but one which houses anx-ray room, clinic, classroom andflight cages which allow wounded birds to practice flying while sheltered from the elements.

The building was made possible through a mix of public donations,private foundations and the Quebec government. It has been years since the rehabilitation centreinitially started fundraising for a new facility.

"We were really lucky," said Wylie.

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Le Nichoirreceives about 1,500 birds per year, but this year it took in about 1,800. The sanctuary says half of the birds it houses are baby birds, while the adult birds it receives are mainly injured by window strikes or cats.

People who have found an injured bird can contact the centre for advice or to coordinate bringing it in, or having it picked up.

The new centre has been built right next to the old barn, which is now going to be used as storage.