Rescued Rare White Belly Bald Eagle

Okay, come on out. Okay, we just barely got back home. We got a call from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources of a young bald eagle down on the ground in its nesting area. It should be flying now. And, oh, it's a little white-bellied bald. Hi, kiddo. Aren't you beautiful? Oh, yeah, you're a mess. Okay. It wasn't flying. It's skinny. And I need to be able to get you, don't I, sweetie? So let's see what I can do to get ahold of you without you getting ahold of me. Okay, shh. Okay, there we go. We got you. We got you, sweetie. Here we go. I know you want to bite me so bad. Bald eagles do love to bite, and so you kind of have to watch them a little more carefully and the golds don't bite nearly as much. But you will, and you're, oh my gosh, your feathers are an absolute mess. Look at that, no wonder. Okay, well, you're gonna be with us for a while. Yes, you will. Okay, I don't know if you guys can see with the GoPro or not, but we'll kind of tilt it down so hopefully you can see what I'm working on here. Now, this is a young bald eagle. This is what we call a white-bellied bald eagle because it's got a white tummy, where most of the young bald eagles, they're kind of all dark brown. They look like a golden eagle. Hi, sweetie. They usually have a light head like that, the young ones? Well, again, this is what we call a white-bellied because, yeah, it's a light phase bald eagle. And so we'll start with fluids and go from there. That's what's facing the right direction. Okay, sweetie, let's get some fluids in you, huh? Shall we, pretty boy? Get some fluids down you. There we go. Get some fluids in there. Such a good boy. Yes, such a good boy. Yes, you are. We'll give it a full physical exam a little bit, but right now we've got to get fluids and food into him. That's the most important thing because he's hot, he's skinny, it's summertime. His sibling, I've seen fly for the last couple of weeks and is doing just fine. And mom and dad have been caring for the one that's doing well. And this poor guy has been just not cared for by his parents because he's still on the ground near the nest tree. But we're going to fix all of that. There's my baby, there we go. Now here comes the fun part. And that is, these love to bite. Yes, you do. We're going to see if I can get this, there you go. Yes, you do, you guys love to bite. Bald eagles love to bite. And they can really bite well. We're going to get this in you. There we go, there's one. Okay, next. Yes, there you go. I'm trying to let him bite the food and not my fingers, which would be a really good thing to keep my fingers from getting bit badly. There we go, there's two. There we are, I know, I know. You love to bite. Bald eagles love to bite. And I get bit by them frequently. And now he says, if I can't bite you, then I'm not going to let you feed me either. There we go. Such a good boy. Such a pretty little boy. Yes, you are. Such a pretty boy. Let's go for the mice and leave the fingers. There we go. Can you take that down? Oh, there we are. There we go. What a pretty boy. What a good boy. You'll feel so much better after having something in your tummy. Yes, you will. There's some fluids and some food. There we go. What a good boy. You're doing well. Yes, you are. Okay, now you got to open up again. Let me get this one in. There's my boy. There's my pretty little boy. Yes, you are. There you go. What a good boy. This is kind of a little special knack. Like I said, bald eagles do love to bite. And they've got a real beak for it too. So you have to be very careful. You have to be able to get into that beak and open it up. It's a little bit of a challenge. But then we get the food where he needs to swallow. There we go. Such a good boy. And I know I get asked all the time, why aren't you wearing gloves? Well, the reason I'm not wearing gloves is because I don't have the dexterity, the feeling to be able to do this. And so gloves are a hindrance to what I'm trying to do. And so we don't wear gloves when we have to do a force feed like this. Yeah, that's my baby. And so if I get bit, that's fine. I just bleed. But it's far more important to get some food in him and some fluids in him. I know, I know. Boy, it's a tough life being the little young eagle. Yes, it is. There's my baby. What a good boy. So here we go. One more time, one more. And then we'll be good for a little bit. We're gonna have to feed you every few hours to start with. Let's get some weight on you. And then we'll see if we can get you to start eating on your own. There you go. Will you take that down, sweetie? Huh? Will you take that piece down too? Last one. There we go. What a good baby. Okay, now let's check you out. Let's see where we're at. Let's see what kind of damage we've got here. Okay. Boy, your feather's a mess. Shh. It's okay, pretty boy. Now I see why the guy thought he had French malt. Okay, here's what we're dealing with here. Like I said, this is a young bald eagle. And because of malnutrition, its feathers haven't grown properly. And so, you know, these are brand new feathers because its juvenile feathers have already fallen out. And this is just a baby. This one's just a few months old. So all of these feathers should stay here. And look at the, oh, I know. It's okay. And the feathers aren't full length. They're not grown properly. That's why he's not flying. He's not flying because, not because of anything physical. It's just the quality of his feathers are so bad. He's missing several tail feathers. You are, you're missing several primary and secondary feathers on the wings here. And so you're just a mess. You're much lighter than most bald eagles. Most bald eagles are dark brown. And this one is what we call a white belly. It's got a lot of white under its wings. It's, I've, to be honest with you, this is probably the lightest bald eagle that I have ever seen. It really is. So you're quite unique. You are, you're quite a unique little bald eagle. And these are all little genetic traits that we're dealing with. Okay. Yeah, my gosh. Look at that. Look at all that white. That's unusual. And I'm gonna bet the reason for all of that white is because, you know, these are newer feathers from the juvenile ones. And so you've been literally malnourished and you've been growing feathers in a really weird situation. Okay, little guy. Well, your feet are fine. I haven't felt anything that felt like a break or broke. You're holding your wings beautifully. I think physically you're okay. I do. Everything's stable and right where it should be. Everything is stable, huh, baby? Okay. Right where it should be. But your feathers are a mess. Well, this is really an unusual situation. Like I said, everything's stable. Okay, yeah. Well, this is unique. I've not had this, a young bald eagle with such bad feathering before. And so health-wise, he's fine. He's a little on the skinny side because he hasn't been fed, but that's all going to change. And I'm going to be very excited to see if we can get you back in the wild. You're very unique genetics and I'd like to see if you survive in the wild. So let's go and get you put over here to chamber for a little bit. And we're going to put you by yourself. But if you're eating on your own, we might put you in with the young golden eagle that we've got in as well. Is she scary? Yeah, Susan's kind of scary. Hey, Scout. And so come on in, kiddo. Now this is a nice shady spot with some perches. And we're going to let you just relax here for a bit and see where you're at. Here we go. There we go. Okay. Really an unusual looking juvenile bald eagle. Very unusual. But mother nature does do some strange things sometimes. So there we are. This is our newest rescue. He's had his first meal. So now let's just leave him to be and let him do his thing. Come on in here. Stand right over there. And this is a bald eagle. This is a juvenile white-bellied bald eagle that came in. It was doing very poorly. It wasn't flying. Its parents stopped feeding it where its sibling was flying well. And the problem is severely malnourished. It's got a lot of really bad feathers. And that's its issue right now is the feathers are so bad that it can't fly. And so we're going to catch him up. I'm going to spray him with some parasite spray to treat him for any insects that he might have on him. And then we're going to put him in with our juvenile golden eagle. They're the same age. And as long as they get along, that'll be better because the other chamber is much, much larger than this one. So I got to go in and wrangle an eagle and you can kind of see how I do that. So let's get this guy here. Hi, babe, how we doing? Yes, I know. There we go. One very angry eagle. Yeah, okay, kiddo. Yes, one very angry bald eagle. Huh, sweetie? Okay. And as you can see right here, I've got to be very careful because those feet will certainly get you. And bald eagles do love to bite. I say that all the time to people, but it's true. More so than goldens do. They like to bite. And so we're going to, yes, you do. Let's see what we can do about this. Let's get you over here where I can find your feet because that's what's really dangerous. Okay, I see one foot. Where's the other one? There's the other one. Okay. Hi, kid. Hi, baby. Yes, I know. I know, I know, I know. Yes, here is just a little guy. There we go. So anyway, we call it a white-bellied bald eagle because it has all the white on his tummy here and a lot of white under its wings. But look at the feathers here on the wings. You can see right here that it's missing most of its primary and secondary flight feathers off this wing. And it's because of malnutrition that that's happened. And the other wing is kind of the same way. I know, I know. You're gonna bite me if I give you a chance. Much of its primary and some of its secondary flight feathers are just not there. And he's gonna have to grow new ones. Here's the bad part, though. We try to get him back in the wild as quickly as we possibly can. Yeah, you're a good boy. It's just as fast as possible. And unfortunately, for this guy to grow in the feathers that he needs to be able to fly appropriately, he's probably gonna be with us for a year, maybe two years. So he's gonna be pretty much a long-term resident with us. And yes, you will, but that's okay. We'll take care of you, kiddo. We'll come on out and we're gonna treat him for parasites and put him in with the golden eagle and see how they do together. There's my boy. Oh, yes, I know. World is just a scary place. And this is just a parasite spray that we use for treating mice and lice and that kind of stuff. And I haven't seen any on him. But when he first comes in, we don't wanna treat him with any kind of a pesticide. You know, he was very skinny and quite sick. But now that he's feeling a little better, he's a little feistier and he wants to bite me, which is great. We like that. We like them when they're feisty and they wanna bite. We are now able to treat him with the spray, take care of any parasites. And that way, if he has any parasites, he doesn't spread them to the golden eagle because we've already treated the golden eagle a couple of times now. Yes, I know. The world's such a terrible place for a baby bald eagle, huh? The terrible place. So come on in. Go ahead and step in, DG. Okay. And you can see up on the upper perch, we have our juvenile bald eagle. The bald eagle's a little bit larger, but the golden eagle is certainly close enough in size and they both have plenty of food available to them. And so hopefully they'll get along and won't have any real issues with one another. There we go. Yes, I know, you're threatening me. You are, you're being very threatening. Are you guys gonna get along? Okay. Our golden's curious, but he looks like they're gonna be okay. So as long as they get along together, this is a lot more room and they'll do much better in here. Good. But it still doesn't understand why humans went and grabbed it and brought it into captivity. It just doesn't understand that. And so we need a quiet facility to let the eagle relax, and that's what we've got in right now. It's shaded and it's quiet and there's water and very, very little human activity in the area. And so hopefully he'll adapt well. And unfortunately, like I said, he's gonna be with us for a year, maybe two, and he has to adapt or die, basically. He really doesn't have a choice. And so we'll try to keep the stress at an absolute minimum for him, and hopefully he'll start settling in. Like I said, plenty of food available to him now. And to be honest with you, he's in with another eagle, and as long as they're not competing for food, he does have a companion for a while. And so the other eagle, in fact, he did try to fly up to the upper perch where the golden eagle is, but he can't do that because of such poor feathers. And so I think the two eagles together will kind of help each other for a little while. You know, why do some wild animals do well in captivity and can be wildlife ambassadors and other ones just can't? And the answer is they're all individuals. And also it depends on the species as well. They're just like humans. There's some of us that do very, very well in the big cities. I don't. You get me into Los Angeles or Salt Lake or Vegas, and I'm tremendously uncomfortable. But you get me out in the middle of the desert, you know, hundreds of miles from civilization, and I'm very, very comfortable. That's my element. And I feel good there. And, you know, there are animals, you know, I don't know if you can see Cody here, but he's just geared for captivity. You know, he just, he loves the couch and he loves the chairs. And he loves that he gets, you know, food every day. And, you know, he has a very soft life, but a coyote or wolf, this would drive them nuts because they're just not genetically programmed to do this. One of the biggest problems is having them physically fit. The good and the bad, the bald eagles are primarily a scavenger. And so they eat a lot of roadkill. They eat a lot of, you know, dead deer, dead sheep, dead whatever they can find kind of a thing. And so they're a scavenger and a fish eater. So it's fitness level doesn't need to be nearly as high as some of the smaller raptors that have to hunt, you know, two, three times a day just in order to survive. So the problem with this bald eagle is he has to grow feathers before we can release him. And this process could take as much as a year, even two years that he's going to be with us. And so it's gonna be probably a pretty long-term captivity. So it's fitness level will be relatively low. This is why we need an eagle flight chamber. But even with, you know, the chamber that we have right now is 10 feet wide and 40 feet long. And that's not enough for really good exercise. But even with a flight chamber that's 50 feet wide and 100 feet long really isn't enough to duplicate an eagle in the wild. The bald may be long-term. And because of that, the expense of feeding him long-term is gonna be really quite high. This is something most people don't realize, but that bald eagle will eat two large rats a day quite comfortably. That foods bill is gonna add up significantly. So I'm always grateful for people who've donated food to us, for us. Some of the local farmers will bring in, you know, gophers and things they get on their farms. Other people donate unwanted pigeons and those kinds of things. And I have some wonderful people that have donated, have gone to our rodent supplier and purchased a box of dead rats for us. And, you know, frozen rats and frozen mice and frozen quail. And that helps us tremendously. But this eagle will be very expensive to rehab. When you see the videos that we produce on our YouTube channel and you see me, you know, talking to them nicely and hand-feeding them and petting them and those kinds of things. This is exclusively when they're in the absolute worst stress situations when they've come in and I have to literally tackle them and grab them and hold them tight. And then I have found over the last 50 years of doing this, that if I talk to them, if I have a very, very calm voice and if my touch is slow and very gentle, it helps to kind of make them feel like, okay, I'm really terrified, but he's not trying to eat me. And so it's kind of one of the methods that we use. Now, I don't want them tame. I don't want them to be pets. I want them to be wild. And so the only time that I'm actually doing this kind of closeness and trying to keep them calm is in the initial stages when I'm trying to either get them fed or get medications down them, tube feed them, you know, putting an IV, whatever medications and veterinary care that I have to do, just trying to keep them calm as best I possibly can so they're not so terrified. But once they're eating on their own and sitting on perches, and then all the human contact is reduced to almost zero, you know, unless I need to go in there and grab them for a health check. And then it's go in and grab them, do the health check real quick and put them back. But it's not an ongoing trying to make them feel my pet, we don't do that. You know, bald eagles generally lay one to three eggs and with the bald eagles, and the golden eagles usually lay two eggs. But the chick that is the biggest and the strongest and his nest mate was a female. And the females are a third bigger than the males. And so you have this big female and she was probably a little bit older and stronger and those kinds of things. Well, she would always eat first and he would get her leftovers. And so mom and dad were having a difficult time providing enough food for both chicks. And this is why this young male had a very poor diet. And this is why its feathers didn't grow in appropriately, why it has so much feather damage. And you know, in the wild, unheld by humans, the eagle would have lived maybe three or four more days and it would have been dead. And so basically the biggest, the strongest, the oldest one eats first and everybody else eats afterwards and so that's mother nature's way of assuring at least one chick survives every year. So this was the non-survivor chick. And you know, the environment that that eagle's nest is in, the truth of the matter is we've built subdivisions all around where the eagle's nest is. And we've gotten rid of most of the ponds and things where they would catch fish. And now the pair of eagles is hunting prairie dogs and they have to travel a little bit of ways. And there's one little kids' fishing pond that's actually right by a shopping center. And that's where the adult eagles were getting their fish from. And so the food sources are not nearly what they were 30, 40 years ago. But the eagles are still here. But it really is, it's tough for them to raise, you know, two or three chicks. Say like, you know where the nest is and if you know that that chick is struggling. If you had, is there a way where you could have provided more food to those parents that they could then get to their chicks? Well, yeah, and that's something, I've had some long discussions with both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Fish and Game. And the truth of the matter is, both state and federal government agencies see that as interfering in the natural processes. And so they won't allow us to do that. When the animal is on the ground and dying, that's the moment that I get called in. But a preemptive providing additional food is something they won't allow. Well, can you even do that so that, I mean, the bird would know the source but then not know that you are the source? I mean, can it even be done? It, yeah, it could be done. But again, you know, you are interfering in the natural process. And so I kind of understand where the Fish and Game and the Fish and Wildlife Service are coming from. And a good example of that is, you know, up in Alaska, the bald eagles have recovered and the bald eagles are doing well. And up in Alaska, there's lots and lots of bald eagles now. And for many, many years, there wasn't much of an issue with the fishing trawlers coming in after a long day of fishing and then dumping the scraps for the bald eagles. But now the bald eagles congregate around the fishing trawlers and will actually, just like seagulls, and they'll come in and land on the boats and try to steal fish from the fishermen and all of those kinds of things because they've become very, very acclimated to the situation. And so we don't want to acclimate them to humans because that in itself puts their lives in danger. And so there's a really fine line here that you have to walk. The question is, you know, can the parents teach the chicks to avoid manmade hazards? And the answer is no, they cannot. The chicks are not with the parents long enough to do that. And it's like, you know, we encourage people that when they're driving out in rural areas, you know, watch the highway ahead of you. You know, if you see, you know, birds on the highway, you know, eating on roadkill, please slow down. If there is a young eagle out on the highway in front of you, you know, you're going down the highway, 60, 70, 80 miles an hour, a young eagle doesn't know what a car is and won't even know that it's a threat until you're so close the eagle can't get out of the way. And the eagle ends up going through your windshield, you get a broken car, I get a broken eagle. And it's the point that if an eagle does escape, you know, cars come down the highway and an eagle does get out of the way soon enough, what that does is that's, the eagle says, oh my God, I almost got hit by that big metal thing coming down the road, and so I need to be more aware. And so that's the lesson learned. Basically, if it doesn't kill them, it makes them stronger. They don't know what a power line is. They don't know what fences are. They don't know what windows are. They don't know all of the human threats that come with civilization. So most likely, every single flying thing has to just learn these things for themselves the hard way and just, it's the degree to which they get whacked is the degree they survive. Yes, and this is why with all birds of prey, more than 80% of them do not survive the first year. In the flight chamber, the eagle will get some live food so that it actually knows how to kill things. And the eagle will be fattened up as much as it can eat. And an eagle in good condition with, it's just as fat as you can get it, can survive about three weeks without food. And so basically what we can do is give the eagle the opportunity to have a kind of a three-week window. And in that three-week window, it's gonna find roadkill and it'll be released at appropriate time when there's more food available and the weather conditions. You know, we're not gonna release in the dead of winter. We're not gonna release in the hottest days of summer. We'll release it in the fall or spring when it has its very, very best chance of survival. And then it's pretty much, in fact, that's kind of what happens with the young ones. You know, basically right now, mom and dad are kind of getting to the point of not caring for the young birds of prey quite soon now. And so the young are on their own and fending for themselves when it's, you know, early fall, you know, nice weather, lots of other young animals out there that they have a much better chance of catching if that makes any sense. And so the food sources is at its most abundant, the weather conditions is at its most mild, and that's the time the chicks need to start fending for themselves. So when you release this bald eagle, it's almost like you are releasing a chick because it's an eagle that doesn't have experience. Right. But all we can do, you know, all we can do is give it another chance.