EAST END, Ohio (WKRC) – A 2-year-old male bald eagle found injured at Cincinnati’s Lunken Airport in mid-June is back in the wild after months of rehabilitation by the Milford-based nonprofit Raptor Inc.
Airport workers discovered the young eagle with a broken wing and called Raptor, an agency that rescues and rehabilitates hunting birds such as falcons and eagles. The release marked the second bald eagle Raptor Inc. has returned to its natural habitat this year.
A 2-year-old male bald eagle found injured at Cincinnati’s Lunken Airport in mid-June is back in the wild after months of rehabilitation by the Milford-based nonprofit Raptor Inc. (WKRC, Provided)
“So, likely what will happen is, this is a very large bird, so it’s not like a hawk that can just spring up off the ground and be all the way near the sun right away. So, eight pound bird, he’ll probably come out. He might even take a little bit of a running start and then he’ll take off,” Raptor’s director of rehabilitation Shannon Frantz said ahead of the release.
Raptor Inc. also helped resuscitate another injured bald eagle found earlier this year by Butler County Sheriff’s deputies. The agency does not name the birds.
The Lunken Airport eagle was almost fully grown at nearly 8 pounds, though still about three years away from developing the species’ trademark white head and tail feathers. That is also when bald eagles become sexually active and begin seeking a mate, which usually lasts for life.
Frantz said the eagle had a strong appetite during rehab, joining the Butler County eagle in going through a box of 50 pounds of trout. Frantz also said the bird was “very fiesty” during rehabilitation.
A 2-year-old male bald eagle found injured at Cincinnati’s Lunken Airport in mid-June is back in the wild after months of rehabilitation by the Milford-based nonprofit Raptor Inc. (WKRC)
“The eagles, they love fish. Obviously, they’ll come down, swoop down, grab fish, eat them. That’s their probably favorite food, but they are also somewhat of a scavenger. They’ll eat rodents. They’ll eat a wide variety. They’re not exclusive to fish, but I noticed during this bird’s stay that there were never leftovers of fish,” Frantz said.
A crowd of volunteers and supporters gathered at a park on the East Side for the eagle’s release on Friday. The bird took a few seconds to come out of its cage, then immediately took off, circling before landing in a nearby tree. It stayed there for nearly half an hour, surveying the area.
“Oh, it’s such a good feeling, especially with these eagles, just because you don’t really realize the magnitude of these birds until you’re up and close with them,” Frantz said.
“We don’t expect him to have any loss of his hunting skills or survival skills right now. He just needs to get his bearings figure out. He’ll realize soon enough that he is in the area where he came from. They don’t really lose that memory,” she said.
After resting, the eagle took off again, heading northeast toward its previous hunting grounds. Frantz said she expects the bird to make a full recovery and live 20 to 30 years. The Lunken Airport eagle was the fourth American bald eagle Raptor Inc. has taken in this year; two did not survive their injuries.
Bald eagles have continued a significant comeback in Ohio and nationwide. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources reported there were as few as seven nesting pairs of eagles in the state in 1973. As of this year, Ohio has as many as 716 eagles, with nearly 1,000 active nests discovered last year. Nationally, there were nearly 317,000 eagles in 2020, up from fewer than 1,000 in the early 1960s.