RIVERSIDE – (INT) – The heat wave is having an impact on our avian friends.

Animal control officers have found dozens of distressed birds languishing in residential backyards. Others were impounded at Riverside County’s other two large shelters in San Jacinto and Thousand Palms.

Since June 14th, more than 40 bird-related incidents have been handled.

“They’re falling out of trees,” Diane Falconer, a volunteer with Hope Wildlife, said. “Then, after they struggle to fly away, they exhaust themselves.”

A song bird fell from a tree in Eastvale and was found dead. It was brought into the shelter. Two days earlier, a deceased owl was brought in by an officer working in the Perris area.

All of the birds transferred to Hope Wildlife will likely be returned back to the wild once they regain strength and the intense heat subsides.

Story Date: June 29, 2016