Wildlife Ambassadors

Brukner Nature Center is home to more than 50 wildlife ambassadors, native Ohio species who can no longer survive in the wild. Come meet them in our indoor and outdoor exhibits!

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Meet Our Wildlife Ambassadors!

New Wildlife Ambassador!
Blue Jay

Blue Jays are one of the most exciting birds! They are easily recognizable by the bright blue color of their feathers and rather assertive behavior. They are known for their intelligence and complex social systems with tight family bonds. These birds are at home in most areas of North America and awe bird watchers with their unique vocalizations and plumage.

New Wildlife Ambassador!
Black Vulture

The Black Vulture is a striking bird distinguished by its glossy black plumage and featherless head. With a wingspan of up to six feet, these scavengers are adept at soaring gracefully through the sky. Commonly found in various habitats across North and South America, including forests, open fields, and urban areas, Black Vultures play a crucial role in ecosystems by efficiently cleaning up carrion.

New Wildlife Ambassador! Common Grackle

Common grackles are blackbirds with long tails and glossy-iridescent bodies. In winter, they forage and roost in large communal, mixed flocks, sometimes in the millions! They are ingenious foragers, feeding on a great variety of invertebrates, grains and nuts. Did you know that grackles have a hard keel on the inside of the upper beak that they use for sawing open acorns?! How cool is that?! Grackles can also be seen anting, allowing ants, which secrete formic acid, to crawl over their body, ridding them of external parasite!

Red Fox

Red foxes are found throughout much of the northern hemisphere from the Arctic circle to Central America, the steppes of central Asia, and northern Africa. Red foxes utilize a wide range of habitats including forest, tundra, prairie, desert, mountains, farmlands, and urban areas. They prefer mixed vegetation communities, such as edge habitats and mixed scrub and woodland. Red foxes are omnivores. They mostly eat rodents, rabbits, insects, and fruit. They will also eat carrion. Red foxes also store food and are very good at relocating these caches.

Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle has been the national emblem of the United States since 1782 and a spiritual symbol for native people for far longer than that. These regal birds aren’t really bald, but their white-feathered heads gleam in contrast to their chocolate-brown body and wings. Look for them soaring in solitude, chasing other birds for their food, or gathering by the hundreds in winter. Once endangered by hunting and pesticides, Bald Eagles have flourished under protection.