Reward to rise to catch bird attacker

A Huntington Beach bird rescue center will announce a major raise from its $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of a suspect after 11 brown pelicans with broken wings were discovered at Bolsa Chica State Beach, officials said.

“I don’t have all the details, but it’s at least going to double,” said Debbie McGuire, wildlife director for the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach. “We had some other people come forward with more money.”

Only one bird remains alive at the center and is struggling to recover; seven were found dead earlier this week, while three were so badly hurt that they had to be euthanized, McGuire said.

The surviving pelican has a “guarded prognosis,” a highly swollen shoulder and is still working on being able to walk, McGuire said.

McGuire called the injuries obviously intentional because of how many of one species with the same injury were found on a single stretch of beach.

“The wings were all broken at the ulna and radius — on us, that’s the bones between our elbow and wrist,” she said. “They’re very strong bones that had to be broken with great torque force. And they were broken backward, the opposite way from if they flew into something.”

That’s why the center is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, McGuire said.

“Someone out there has to know what happened, and hopefully they’ll come forward,” she said.

Brown pelicans are federally listed as an endangered species and as migratory birds, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigator Erin Dean, who is the resident agent in charge at the service’s law enforcement office in Torrance.

Injuring or killing brown pelicans is a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine for an individual, Dean said.

McGuire said she suspects the birds’ wings were snapped at sea, because the living ones were found swimming to shore.

Pelicans have been found mutilated before over the last decade, McGuire said. Rarely, pouches have been slashed, wings tied together, and birds even impaled on pieces of wood.

“Unfortunately we do see it,” she said. “We don’t like to see it. It’s a small, very, very small part of society, but they’re out there.”

It’s too bad someone had something against these birds, McGuire said.

“They’re probably one of the best things about Southern California,” she said. “I just love seeing them. They’re an asset to society.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the Department of Fish and Wildlife at (310) 328-1516.