Join us at outreach and adoption events to talk about rescued pigeons and doves and introduce people to birds. (No prior experience required, we train. Use our birds as ambassadors or bring your own.) This is a really amazing experience – people light up when they hold a pigeon or dove and learn how sweet and gentle they are. We participate in about 30 events each year, including the Solano Stroll, the Sonoma VegFest, the San Damiano Blessing of the Animals, Pigeon Palooza in Oakland, San Francisco Middle School STEAM Night, the Berkeley Bay Festival, Earth Day at the Oakland Zoo, the Lakeshore Elementary Community Superhero Day, adoption events at a variety of animal shelters, Pet Food Express stores, in classrooms and much more. A typical shift is three to five hours. (Check out our Events page and learn more)

Frequency: Commit in advance only to the dates/locations you choose (we’ll invite you as opportunities are calendared)

Skills needed: Friendliness, reliability, no bird nor experience required (we bring birds and we train)

Location: Throughout Greater San Francisco Bay Area (Sacramento to San Jose)

Want to do this? Please complete our application and we’ll connect to discuss the possibilities.

Alameda, CA:

Join our amazing team of weekly volunteers at the Ploughshares Nursery in Alameda, a 16’ x 8’ aviary that houses 30 pigeons in foster care. Each volunteer visits the aviary for one shift per week (for 1 to 4 hours depending on your preference) to:

• • Sweep, scrape and hose down the floor
  • Change out water tubs
  • Change newspaper in nest boxes
  • Look for real eggs and swap for fakes (feggs)
  • Add new food
  • Socialize with the birds and take photos/videos to share

This is a great way to interact with pigeons and is a vital component of our work. As we grow, we hope to include more aviaries and our need for volunteers will keep expanding. (Learn all about it)

Frequency: Commit to one shift per week

Skills needed: Dependable, love to clean, no bird experience required (we train)

Location: Currently Alameda, CA  (with potential for Martinez, Fairfield, and Napa. Scroll down for San Jose)

Want to do this? Please complete our application and we’ll connect to discuss the possibilities.

San Jose, CA:

Do you live in the South Bay? Love doves? We are currently signing up volunteers to maintain our dove aviary at Andy’s Pet Shop! Andy’s is an amazing, rescue-only shop at 429 S Bascom Avenue in San Jose. We need volunteers to sign up for one shift per week to:

• • Sweep and scrape floor and perches
  • Change out water tubs
  • Add new food
  • Socialize with the birds and take photos/videos to share

This is a great way to interact with doves, socializing them to help them get adopted, and is a vital component of our work. As we grow, we hope to include more aviaries and our need for volunteers will keep expanding.

Frequency: Commit to one shift per week

Skills needed: Dependable, love to clean, no bird experience required (we train)

Location: San Jose, CA

Want to do this? Please complete our application and we’ll connect to discuss the possibilities.

Our bachelor flock of doves at Andy’s Pet Shop

Thank Coo!

Our foster care providers are the heart and soul of Palomacy. We don’t have a shelter facility or sanctuary. All of our birds depend on foster care. We can only say Yes to rescuing a bird when we have a foster home for them. Currently we have 40 volunteer foster sites (stretching from Santa Cruz to Petaluma) that range in capacity from one bird cared for indoors to 20+ outside. Pigeons and doves are fun and easy to live with and we always need more foster carers for birds either indoors with the family or outside in predator & rodent-proof aviaries. No experience required though a willingness to follow our guidelines is. Palomacy pays for avian vet care (your transport assistance is much appreciated) and fosters pay for food and basic care supplies. The first step to fostering and learning more and asking questions, is to complete our application. It does not obligate you and is the place where we start the conversation. (Learn about what pigeons and doves need)

Frequency: Most foster carers spend 30 to 60 minutes every day caring for basic needs, plus some extra time for socializing

Skills needed: Patience, compassion, willingness to be taught by the birds.

Enclosure needed: We often have cages or crates we can loan for indoors and/or we’ll try to assist you if you’re building an aviary. We can teach you all you need to know but you’ll need to lead the enclosure-getting effort. (Cage and aviary info)

Location: Throughout Greater San Francisco Bay Area (Sacramento to San Jose)

Complete our foster/adopt application and we’ll connect to discuss the possibilities.

Yuzu big cage

Palomacy’s website lives on WordPress and while we know the basic basics, we also know that WP offers many features we should be taking advantage of (Forms and SEO are two important ones). We also want optimal integration with Plugins, MailChimp, FundRazr, ASM, etc. We need to keep the site easy to manage for those of us who are not familiar with html, coding, etc. In other words, we want to stick with a WP template. And we are looking to do a modest redesign in the near future. This role requires:

Frequency: Available for occasional support and projects, maybe some proactive maintenance and enhancement (approx. 4 hours/week?)

Skills needed: Experience building and maintaining a website on WordPress, ability to collaborate with others who are not so tech-savvy but have input about how the site should look and function

Location: From anywhere

Want to do this? Please complete our application and we’ll connect to discuss the possibilities.

We have lots of compelling photos and powerful stories and we post to social media every day but we need someone who can help us level up our profiles! We have 42K followers on Facebook, 15K on Instagram and only 300 on TikTok. TikTok is especially great for pigeon rescue and adoptions and we need skilled help!

Frequency: Often!

Skills needed: Team player, content creation (especially videos), algorithm insights, marketing talent

Location: From anywhere

Want to do this? Please complete our application and we’ll connect to discuss the possibilities.

We are always looking for help with the creation of online announcement graphics about fundraising campaigns, birds in need of homes, outreach events, flyers, and more. A few examples are shown below.

Frequency: Commit only to the projects you choose

Skills needed: Self-starter, team player, Adobe, Canva

Location: From anywhere

Want to do this? Please complete our application and we’ll connect to discuss the possibilities.

Palomacy receives emails, messages, and phone calls every day from people who have found a pigeon or dove in the park, their backyard, under a car, in a store… birds who are lost, injured, scared, often all three. We need help getting them to safety, whether that is to WildCare in San Rafael, a foster home in San Jose or an avian vet in Oakley or anywhere in between. The vets we work with are located in Oakley, California, which is 50 miles east of San Francisco. There is no set schedule for this role – as a rescue and transport volunteer, you would be part of a group notified whenever this help is needed and let us know if you’re available. And birds can be taken on BART, buses, Lyft, etc. (Learn more)

Frequency: Commit only to the occasions you choose

Skills needed: Responsible, ability to get around, sometimes bird catching is needed

Location: Throughout Greater San Francisco Bay Area (Sacramento to San Jose)

Want to do this? Please complete our application and we’ll connect to discuss the possibilities.

There are so many beautiful, amazing, sassy, sweet pigeons and doves in need of homes! We need more people power helping to inspire potential adopters, to coach and support applicants and to develop placement partnerships with sanctuaries, wineries, shelters, and other rescues. These birds need more adopters and we need you to help us make that happen! (Learn what adopted pigeons and doves need)

Frequency: Ongoing 4-16 hours per week ideally

Skills needed: Self-starter, outcome-driven, creative thinker, tenacious, love for pigeons and doves, continuous learner, placement experience would be extra great

Location: Throughout Greater San Francisco Bay Area (Sacramento to San Jose)

Want to do this? Please complete our application and we’ll connect to discuss the possibilities.