Cover Story
Conserving threatened species is a long, difficult road photographs by Veronica Weber / story by Eric Van Susteren
Top: A family of Rainbow Lorikeets feed on the pollen of freshly picked flowers in their enclosure at Pandemonium Aviaries. Above: Michele Raffin, executive director and founder of Pandemonium Aviaries, comforts a macaw before bringing it to its outdoor enclosure. Some birds must be kept inside during the night because of the relatively mild climate at Pandemonium compared to the birds’ natural habitat.
olorful mosaic art composed of broken bits of tile are scattered throughout the maze of enclosures clustered around Michele Raffin’s Los Altos Hills home. “Mosaics are made from found and broken objects,” she said over the squawks and chirps of the enclosures’ inhabitants. “It’s symbolic of what we do with birds.” Raffin is the executive director and founder of Pandemonium Aviaries sanctuary, which breeds non-native birds, some of which are endangered or rare. “Pandemonium” refers to the word for a flock of parrots, but it could also be used to describe Raffin’s schedule, which is consumed by caring for birds. She said she spends 14 hours a day, seven days a week maintaining the sanctuary — cleaning the dozens of enclosures, feeding and talking to the birds, and en-
suring they’re protected from the hawks that occasionally dive-bomb the cages. Raffin’s birds aren’t for sale — she hopes to establish healthy populations of birds in captivity so that one day they can be introduced into the wild. She focuses particularly on Victoria-crowned pigeon, blue-crowned pigeon, Bartlett’s bleeding heart, Luzon bleeding heart and the Nicobar pigeon. The Victoria-crowned pigeon, bluecrowned pigeon and Bartlett’s bleeding heart are listed as “vulnerable” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s “red list,” which evaluates the conservation status of plant and animal species. The Luzon bleeding heart and the Nicobar pigeon are listed as “near threatened.” “The Victoria-crowned pigeon are really (continued on next page)
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