A while back we got a call at the Black Hills Raptor Center from the folks at our local UHaul depot. They had a hawk in their back lot that seemed to be in some trouble. Here's what I found atop a wrecked truck.
Catching him was easy. He was a "young of the year" bird and not too experienced. Also in my favor was the fact that he was deeply malnourished and extremely dehydrated. I just reached up with a gloved hand and grabbed him by the ankles, wrapped him in a towel and headed for our vet's office. He offered no fight in return.
We loaded him with 20 cc's of subcutaneous fluids just to help combat the dehydration and then did a quick exam. No broken bones, no blood, not even any pain reaction. Just seriously atrophied muscles, indicating malnutrition. He still had downy feathers all over. The quills of the flight feathers/tail feathers were still growing out! This guy was too young to be out of the nest. If his parents were still alive, they would be feeding him! Adult raptors are some of the most dedicated parents you will ever find. Later one adult and another juvenile were found in the woods behind the UHaul lot.
He weighed out at 326 grams after the initial fluids, so he would have been about 306 when I picked him up, or just 10.8 ounces! That afternoon we started him on squirrel livers, rabbit livers, and later whole mice. He ate everything we offered, just as long as we were out of sight! Later that evening we offered deboned rabbit without the skin. Lots and lots of feedings of small offerings. All told, the little guy consumed 237 grams of food, or 77% of his bodyweight in just one day.
His "Don't Mess With Me" posture!
For 10 days we continued to offer all the food he could pack away. At this age, these birds will eat up to 50% MORE than an adult can consume. Their little bellies are never really satisfied, their growth is so rapid it is almost impossible to overfeed.
In this photo you can see that the tips of the feathers on his back and shoulders are pale colored. In his second year they will not have the pale tips and his eyes will be very dark. His final weight was 914 grams, a 298.6% weight gain in just 10 days. Yeah, when he came in, he was in deep trouble.
On the bow perch.
The Black Hills Raptor Center is not yet a Federally Licensed rehabilitation center. For this situation, the bird was held under the permits of a properly licensed rehabber. Unfortunately, she didn't have the space to house this bird. We did. And, our housing had already been approved by the US Fish & Wildlife Services for the housing of raptors.
With the rehabber's cooperation and the cooperation of our mutual US Fish & Wildlife Services representative in Denver, we were provisionally allowed to house the bird in our facility. Our permitting agent in Denver, Linda Downey, is a great person and really works hard at being helpful. Without her, we would struggle with the layers of red tape that goes with the permitting processes.
