Meet Scott Rashid | Director of the Colorado Avian Research and Rehabilitation Institute

We had the good fortune of connecting with Scott Rashid and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Scott, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I was receiving several injured birds to rehabilitate, but no one would donate to help defray the costs of rehabilitating the birds that they brought to me because I was not a nonprofit and they could not get a tax deduction.

Also noticed that many bird species were declining, and I wanted to help some of them by building and placing nest structures for them. For this I needed building materials and money to get to and from the location where the nest structures were.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My business is a bit eclectic

I research and rehabilitate birds, I research birds and have published several papers and written and illustrated 7 books about my research findings, I also illustrate each book with my drawings and paintings.

I have created my own style of art. I combine Cubism and Realism to create a one-of-a-kind style of art that I use to help raise money for the nonprofit.

My books… Small Mountain Owls, The Great Horned Owl (an in-depth study). Northern Goshawk (the gray ghost), American Kestrel (the diminutive raptor), Exploring the World of the Barn Owl (an intimate look into their secretive life), The Northern Saw-whet Owl (The Deep Woods Gnome) and Small Mountain Owls Revised and Expanded.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We would spend the week birding. Looking at birds to see and photograph.

I would take them to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) to search for birds. We would also go out to the Pawnee Grasslands to photograph birds.

If the timing was right, we would go to my research areas to band Barn Owls and American Kestrels.

As for dining, we would eat at Thai restaurants, Mexican restaurants and maybe a coffee shop for breakfast.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have two mentors. both have passed away.

The first is Dr. Ron Ryder, emeritus professor from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. He got me interested in researching birds.

The second is Ms. Sigrid Eublacker. She was the founder and director of the Birds of Pery Foundation in Broomfield, Colorado.

Website: www.carriep.org

Instagram: scottdrashid1

Facebook: Colorado Avian Research and Rehabilitaion Institute and Scott Rashid

Image Credits
All images of me are credit, Susan Rashid