Vancouver’s ‘Birdman’ could lose nest

Christopher Driggins loves birds but has found it’s not lucrative. His nonprofit organization accepts pet birds that need a home. After a year of unemployment he’s 10 months behind on his mortgage. (Photos by Steven Lane/The Columbian)

Tarzan, a scarlet macaw, is one of 11 birds currently living at Driggins’ bird rescue operation.

Christopher Driggins spends quality time with some of his bird charges.

There’s not a lot of money in birds.

There probably could be if Christopher Driggins wanted to go the route of becoming a dealer in exotic pets.

But Driggins has seen too much of the unscrupulous end of that practice: birds left behind; underfed; overcaged; underloved.

There’s no shortage of love in the aviary of Northwest Bird Rescue, Driggins’ nonprofit business — and his home in northeast Vancouver.

There’s a second corporate name these days — it’s Birdman’s Exotic Bird Sanctuary and Orphanage — due to the legal tangles that have tied up the first one. He says volunteers and officers dipped into the nonprofit’s bank accounts and tried to sabotage his rescue efforts.

Because of that, and because Driggins has been unemployed for about a year, the aviary is close to moving. Driggins said he’s 10 months behind on his mortgage payments.

“I never thought it would get to this position,” he said. “I need $8,100 and a job to stay here.”

Or, by this time next month, his remaining birds — he’s down to just 11, from a capacity crowd of nearly 100 — may be placed at rescue shelters in Salem, Ore., and elsewhere while Driggins figures out what to do next.

Driggins said he regularly sinks his own money into his effort to rescue, nurse and place exotic and pet birds. Tens of thousands of dollars have paid for cages, bamboo, food and medicine as well as heat and security cameras. His home is two-thirds birds, he said — walking into the front room is like visiting the aviary at a small zoo. You’ve got to keep your head down, your shoulders covered and your ears ready for piercing screeches and squawks.

Driggins gets regular calls for help from local animal control agencies and the state Fish and Wildlife department. He’s constantly heading off on rescue missions, he said, and it’s clear from his intense focus — not to mention the cuddles, the strokes, the little kisses — that birds are his true calling in life.

Sometimes that true calling has crowded out paying work as an inside-sales professional, he admitted. And he lost money on his much-publicized, successful efforts to relocate parakeets who were nesting on power poles in Yacolt over the past couple of years, he said.

Still, he believes what he does is a valuable community service — and he’s hoping people will recognize that.

“I’m just hoping to be able to stay here through the kindness of strangers who recognize over the last nine years what we’ve meant to the community,” he said. “We were there when they needed us, now we’re the victim of circumstances and we need help.”

To contact Driggins call 360-247-3626 (BIRDMAN) or visit www.nwbirdrescue.com.



Scott Hewitt: 360-735-4529 or scott.hewitt@columbian.com.