MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — There are only a handful of wildlife rehabilitators licensed to care for the most vulnerable animals and birds in Florida.

One of them has been working locally for more than 30 years, rescuing hurt, injured, poisoned and orphaned animals.

Animal Advocate Jacey Birch took viewers south for a look inside Wildlife Rescue of Dade County.

“He’s still got all this fuzz which means his feathers aren’t developed enough,” Brown said.

That’s wildlife rehabilitator Lloyd Brown, examining a young bird at Wildlife Rescue of Dade County.

“This is a Cooper’s hawk, this guy’s injuries so far he’s been unable to fly,” he said.

Brown has dedicated his life to giving animals a second chance.

“People say what do you do for a living, well my paying job is I’m a firefighter, I rescue people for the money, I rescue animals because it’s my life’s work,” he said.

While he now specializes in birds, Brown has worked with nearly every kind of animal over the past three decades.

“I’m learning something new every day and the animals teach me,” he said.

As he gains knowledge, he shares it worldwide, hoping to help others save more animals.

“Rwanda, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Panama, we teach at least once a year in Trinidad and then all over the U.S. too,” he said.

During a recent visit to the nonprofit Wildlife Rescue of Dade County, Brown shared stories from the field.

“That’s from a baby bobcat that got hit by a car, and when I got to it, it couldn’t move so I thought ok I’m going to scoop my arm under it to use like a backboard, and when I did those legs came alive!” he said.

The work requires more than just a love of animals.

“Everybody tells me ‘oh, I just love animals’ but it’s not just that, you gotta be committed to trying to make their world a better place or mitigate the damage that’s being done,”' he said.

On average, Brown rescues about one animal every day.

“It’s still early in the season, we’ll probably get a lot more baby screech owls,” he said.

But his work goes beyond rescuing, rehabbing and releasing.

He understands these vulnerable animals in a way few others can.

“This is a young broad wing, probably only 8-9 months old, it doesn’t have its adult colors yet,” he said.

When hatchlings or newborn orphans are brought in, Brown becomes their parent, teaching them how to survive in the wild, like a recent eaglet that fell from its nest.

“Considering that this was a baby eagle, we had to teach it how to fly, and then we had to teach it how to hunt and fish on its own,” he said.

A large flight cage on the property allows recovering birds to rebuild their strength and test their wings again.

“A broad wing hawk has been here for a few weeks, she ingested a poisoned rat so luckily Lloyd was able to administer the antidote and she has been back to flying in this open air cage, so that means she could be released back into the wild as soon as this week,” Birch said.

Recently, Brown has focused on protecting eaglets, reinforcing nests and banding the young birds so they can be tracked for life.

“In 2012, there was as few as 19,000 bald eagles in the entire eastern unit, as of 2022, there were 70,000,” he said.

Though he knows the work makes a difference in South Florida, it often comes without thanks.

Viewers can take a live look at an eagles’ nest in the video below.

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