Wildlife carer dedicates life to helping Townsville birds

For more than three decades Sarah Luke has selflessly cared for injured birds, spending thousands on food and shelter.

Bird Carer Sarah Luke, with a Bush Stone Curlew Fledgling. Picture: Alix Sweeney

For more than three decades Sarah Luke has selflessly cared for injured birds, spending thousands on food and shelter.

She doesn’t expect a thank you.

Seeing them fly away is more than enough.

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Her love for birds was passed on by her mother who handed her a nest of struggling barn swallows to care for when she was 11.

Now aged 43, Ms Luke has helped countless injured birds in Townsville.

Bird Carer Sarah Luke, with a Bush Stone Curlew Fledgling. Picture: Alix Sweeney

“They’re a huge mortality species. They have a lot of incidents with people and pets,” she said. Caring for birds is a self-funded labour of love for Ms Luke, who specialises in the rehabilitation of ground birds such as curlews and plovers.

Ms Luke was trained by NQ Wildlife and urged anyone else thinking of caring for animals to do the same.

She jokingly said she was “crazy” for being so dedicated, taking baskets of birds to social gatherings.

“It’s very rewarding when a bird you raised chooses to come back to you,” she said. “It’s like paying it forward in a way, helping animals without them asking me for help.”

Bird Carer Sarah Luke, with a Bush Stone Curlew Fledgling. Picture: Alix Sweeney

After losing equipment being stored in Idalia to the floods, Ms Luke is in the process of building an aviary.

She received $1500 from the State Government’s Community Sustainability Action Grants program to build the aviary.

Originally published as Wildlife carer dedicates life to helping Townsville birds