Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Word on the Bird

I just talked to the wildlife sanctuary that took in the hawk Evelin and I caught on Sunday, and it looks like the little guy is doing well. According to the rehabilitator, the hawk is very young and very thin, and they are working to fatten him* up a bit.

Like the animal control officer who picked up the hawk, the rehabilitator said she thought the bird was a red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), but she couldn't be 100% sure. She did say he was very young, and that he didn't know how to hunt yet.

The goal is to get him strong enough to go to a federal bird rehabilitator in Southern Maryland, where he can be taught how to hunt and, hopefully, be released back to the wild. The rehabilitator he is with now works primarily with mammals, but she said our hawk was the second fledgling raptor she had taken in this year.

*I still don't know if the hawk is male or female, I'm using "he," "him," etc., as nongendered pronouns.

No comments: