BIRD HUGGER

Catherine Greenleaf:     Hello there, everybody. We've got a special treat for you today. Today we'll be talking with Nadeem Shehzad, one of the two brothers featured in the Academy Award nominated documentary, All That Breathes. Stay tuned. We'll be right back.

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                                    The touching film All That Breathes has it all. Director Shaunak Sen chronicles humankind's connection to wildlife set against a backdrop of climate change, human overpopulation, air pollution and religious extremism. At the heart of all of this controversy and chaos are the birds, who as Nadeem says in our interview are just trying to live their lives. And now I'd like to introduce Nadeem Shehzad, one of the two brothers featured in the Academy Award nominated film, All That Breathes. Together with his brother, Mohammad Saud, they have rescued and rehabilitated over 25,000 birds of prey over the last 15 years.

Nadeem, welcome to the show. We're so pleased you could join us. Now can you tell our listeners how you became involved in rescuing and rehabilitating birds?

Nadeem Shehzad:         From our very childhood, we used to help any bird or animal with our free time and used to take birds to a bird hospital and when we’d find a kitten, we'd bring it to our home and we'd care for it. And then in 1994, '95, we found a Black Kite, Saud and I. We took it to the bird hospital where we used to go to take pigeons there and the staff there refused to treat that bird. They said that the Black Kite is a meat-eater and they can't feed it. So they can't help it. So they said, "You have to take it back." They said to just drop the bird back to the same spot where we found it.

                                    A lot of time goes by and we used to see a lot of Black Kites on the streets and nobody used to take care of them and they were just lying on the road. And then in the year 2003 we found a Black Kite with a wounded wing again. So we were planning to just to ignore it, but something changed in our mind and we said, "Why don't we take it to our house? It doesn't have any place to go." So we took it to our home and we called the veterinarian, and he came to our house and treated the bird.

                                    And after a few days, we got another one. And after a another few days, we got another one. And we put them on the same rooftop and we built a fence, a high fence, around the walls of our rooftop so that no bird will be able to jump off without flying off. If the bird is capable of flying to a certain height, it can fly out because we don't have a top on top of one section of the bird enclosure. So if a bird is fixed and is able to fly, then it can go. So this whole thing started from the year 2003, one bird at a time, and we never thought that it would be something quite like this, what we have today.

Catherine Greenleaf:     Wow. That's amazing. So now can you tell our listeners about the Black Kite, a little bit about its biology and behavior?

Nadeem Shehzad:         So in the background, you must be hearing a lot of bird calls (laughs). They are young Black Kites, which are under care at our Center. The young ones, they are very active and right now there's something going on among themselves and they are just pushing around each other. This kind of behavior is normal as they heal.  They become very vocal and they just yell at each other. Since we have many of them in our Clinic, it kind of makes them uncomfortable when too close to many birds of their own type. It goes against the nature of these birds. They are kind of lone birds and they do not flock.

                                    They're only seen in flocks when they are waiting for food or when it is mating and rearing season. If you go to some forest or jungle, you won't see a flock of Black Kites. This is how they just adapt to the urban eco-system. Millions have adapted. In the US, you have the Red-Tailed Hawk. It's about the same size. The hawk you have is more of a predator and the Kite is more of scavenger. They do hunt mammals, other birds at times, but not regularly.

Catherine Greenleaf:     What is it about raptors that you like?

Nadeem Shehzad:         It’s not exactly that we specifically wanted to help raptors and wanted to start something for them. We saw that these birds needed the help, so we just started doing something for them. It was not that we loved raptors. But that's why we're working -- to serve raptors.

Catherine Greenleaf:     I see. Now, the movie deals with the challenges that the Kites face in New Delhi. Can you talk about some of those challenges?

Nadeem Shehzad:         It's more like they are taking advantage of this urban setting. Ecologically they're finding a lot of food because of the large population of New Delhi and we produce a lot of garbage. It provides them with food. And we also have big slaughterhouses and we’re a very big exporter of meat in the world, and the garbage is dumped next to slaughterhouses, and they attract a lot of birds, a lot of Black Kites, as the meat, which is unsuitable for human consumption, is dumped in the open on the top of these garbage dumps and thousands of Kites, they come and eat the refuse.

                                    So they have a very good food source. And there's a tradition in the whole city of Delhi where people feed meat to them. They throw pieces of meat in the air and the birds come diving and they grab the piece of meat in midair and they get their food from it. So there's also a tradition of feeding Black Kites, so there is an advantage to urbanization. They're getting a lot of food from the garbage dumps where we have slaughterhouses. It has a very good combination for them to grow. Also in Delhi, there's a lot of green coverage. We have a lot of trees in some specific protected woodlands. So they have a very good nesting space also. So the food and nice nesting space I think is the most advantageous situation any wild bird can have.

Catherine Greenleaf:     Now, what injuries do you see in Kites when they arrive at your hospital? Are the Black Kites coming in with head injuries or spinal injuries?

Nadeem Shehzad:         Okay. So this is something. Paper kite flying is a very popular hobby in India. And like other countries where people fly paper kites with the normal thread and they just enjoy flying, in India you have an undeclared competition between each and every kite flyer. And that is to cut the other person's kite, to cut the string off the other person's kite. So what they use is a sharp thread. A normal thread, which is coated with powdered glass, so that the whole combination becomes very sharp and when a bird flies into one, a thread which is already in the air, they get very severe cut wounds.

                                    And the shape of a bird is so that whenever they collide with a thread or they fly into a thread, it always ends up on their wings. So we don't see any other area on the bird which has been cut because of kite-flying thread. It is always the wings. So that is the number one source of injuries we get. We get more than 3,000 birds every year. Most of them are raptors, Black Kites and other birds of prey. And about 1,000 of them, they come in to us with wounded wings just because of the kite-flying thread.

                                    We also get some birds who have injuries when they fly into a glass window or they get into accidents with cars or they fly into a fence. And when they fight between themselves for a female or for a nesting space at breeding time. Sometimes we even get methane burn cases where their feathers are burned. Also, some medical issues like metabolic bone disease in young birds where there's an imbalance of calcium and phosphorus. So it damages their bones, make them very brittle and rubbery so they bend like polio in humans. Some cases are what we call avian pox. There's a lot of pox spread all over their bodies. Mainly on the non-feathered part like around their beak, face, on their legs. So there's a variety of different cases which we get.

                                    The two major ones are kite-flying thread injuries and juvenile birds from the nest who were trying to learn how to fly and they ended up on the ground and someone picks them up and brings them to our hospital or some other hospital for a treatment. They think that the bird is injured, that it can't fly, but actually it's a young bird learning how to fly. We got about 1,200 juveniles last year and we had a very unusual summer last year. Our weather was very hot. So we get about on an average 500 to 700 juveniles every year. But last year because of the severe heat, we got about 1,200. So the two main reasons are kite flying thread and juveniles coming in.

Catherine Greenleaf:     Wow. That's a lot of birds. So now, is it exciting to be in a documentary nominated for the Academy Award?

Nadeem Shehzad:         Yes, of course. We never thought that our story would be loved by so many people that we would get nominated for the Oscars. This was something kind of surprising. But the whole year, we got a lot of awards from different places. The film has been very much praised and is excellent work done by Shaunak Sen and his team. The photographer, the sound person, the producer, Amann, Teddy, and everyone was behind this amazing work, which got us at the Oscars in the end.

Catherine Greenleaf:     Right. Now, what would you say about film reviewers who are saying that the documentary is transcendent and almost spiritual? By that I don't mean religious, but I do mean spiritual.

Nadeem Shehzad:         Right. So in the making of the film, I think that was clear to Shaunak while directing the film and editing the film. He said, "The film should be poetic." With a film like that people should get the emotion in it. Like when Saud and Salik talk about treating the birds. It feels like you are sitting with them in the same room and watching them talking. Even this whole wildlife life thing around the city, it's not just focusing on us. It was also how in Delhi, where you have so much pollution, so much overpopulation, a lot of garbage, but life still goes on and you see a lot of animals. You can see they are just popping out from every possible place and they're trying to live their lives. I think that is something which made this film a complete package -- with all of the story, all of the direction, photography, sound, directing. Everything made the film as unique as it is right now.

Catherine Greenleaf:     Right. Now, will you be at the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday?

Nadeem Shehzad:         Yes. We are leaving on Thursday night. Me, Saud and Salik all together will be going to the Academy Awards ceremony.

Catherine Greenleaf      That's very exciting.

Nadeem Shehzad:         Yes, it is.

Catherine Greenleaf:     As we wrap up here, I just wanted to say that people like myself in the wildlife rehabilitation profession are very, very excited for you and everyone involved in the film. We have our fingers crossed that you will win.

Nadeem Shehzad:         Thank you so much.

Catherine Greenleaf:     I'd like to thank Nadeem Shehzad for joining us today. We wish you and the film the best of luck and we hope you win the Academy Award for best documentary.