This Fourth of July, HARP’s certified wildlife rehabilitators had a special patient. A young bald eagle entered our care after sustaining significant damage to his flight feathers.

Treating America’s national bird requires lots of special training, equipment, and great care. These powerful animals must be housed in specially-built enclosures and handled by experts to avoid further injury.

This first-year fledgling Bald Eagle was brought into the WLC on June 26th by the PA Game Commission. He came from U.S. Steel, where it was injured. This nest currently has a camera on it! Which was how they were able to spot he was down and unable to fly. We are not equipped to take care of eagles, so we are working closely with Tamarack Wildlife Center for his rehabilitation.

After a full exam by our rehabbers, we found that he has some mild inflammation in both of his shoulders. In addition, his feathers took a hard hit.  He has severely damaged most of his tail feathers and primaries on his left-wing. While they are in poor condition and he will need to molt new feathers in order to be released, he is in good health otherwise! Since he is a young fledgling, our team is hand-feeding this guy twice a day! He is eating roughly 600g of meat a day!

This young eagle will return to the wild when his feathers have grown back, after being allowed to recover and learn to fly again in safety.

Caring for America’s wildlife

HARP’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is equipped to care for a wide variety of native Pennsylvania species in an environment that keeps them safe and limits human contact so that they can continue their normal behaviors in the wild after their treatment.

The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center treats over 4,000 patients a year and has cared for over 40,000 of Pennsylvania’s native animals since it opened its doors.

To learn more and support the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center’s important work, click below!