Volunteering

We have many volunteer openings at ARC, and we provide hands-on training with birds of prey for dedicated volunteers. In addition to helping to rehab raptors, we also provide education programs to the Central Florida community.

Volunteers can expect to gain experience in the care and management of birds of prey, and learn about native species of raptors.

We gladly take volunteers age 14 and up. Younger volunteers age 14-18 must be signed in by a parent or older adult on their first visit.  There is no prior experience needed to volunteer at ARC!  

Volunteer work days are Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:30am to 12:30pm. We are also open to the public on Saturdays and can always use help from 9:30am to 4:30pm. A minimum of 3 hours per volunteered day is requested.

Interested new volunteers should come out on a Saturday during opening hours to sign up, and see if volunteering would be a good fit for you. Please keep in mind that we work with wild animals. While we do handle our raptors as part of the rehabilitation and education process, the privilege of bird handling is based on experience and knowledge as determined by our director.

Here are just a few of the tasks that volunteers can expect to perform:  

Facility Care: Constructing or rewrapping perches Cleaning/Maintaining Mews Helping to construct new housing facilities  

Rehabilitation: Mews/Kennel cleaning Feeding birds Handling education birds Weighing birds Giving water and showers to all our birds on hot days Bird Management Helping to release birds back to the wild  

Education: Talking to visitors about our education birds, their place in the environment, their biology, and how humans impact them Programs take place at ARC on Saturdays, and sometimes offsite during the week  

Gardening/ Landscaping: Planting Watering Weeding