A wedge-tailed eagle is on the waiting list for a feather transplant at the Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital.
Key points:
- An injured eagle was found on a farm in south-east Queensland
- Vets at Byron Bay are looking for feathers for a transplant
- Wedge-tailed eagles are Australia’s largest birds of prey
“Stan” was found injured on the Moore family’s property at Stanthorpe, near the NSW-Queensland border, several days ago.
“There he was hopping along in the paddock, he was sopping wet and looked very sad,” Kendall Moore said.
“He didn’t put up much of a struggle at all, which was a bit of a worry.
“He was very placid, he was a bit weak I think.”
The family covered the large bird of prey in a blanket and put it in a horse float to dry out.
Ms Moore said Stan was looking more sprightly the next morning, and devoured a rabbit as a snack before being bundled up and driven about three hours to the Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital.
It was there that the eagle came under the care of foundation veterinarian Dr Bree Talbot.
“We noticed that he didn’t have his flight feathers, and they’re very important for an eagle,” she said.
After anaesthetising the eagle, Dr Talbot and her team were able to examine him more closely for other signs of injury.
“We found a little wound on his neck, and that’s a wound that was probably a hole in his oesophagus, which is not uncommon in wild birds.”
‘Really cool procedure’
To get Stan back in the air, Dr Talbot said it was decided they would repair his damaged wings with replacement feathers.
“So when we have other birds that don’t make it or have passed away, we actually save those feathers,” she said.
“There’s this really cool procedure called imping, it’s kind of like organ donation.
“It’s meticulous how you attach [the feathers] … they have to be the right size, the right shape,” she said.
Stan was prepared for the feather-replacement procedure on Thursday afternoon, but things did not go according to plan.
While Dr Talbot and her team had three different types of wedge-tailed eagle feathers, it turned out that Stan did not match any of them.
“We actually had to postpone the procedure and we’re on the look out for more feathers,” she said.
“Because if we don’t get the right feathers, the right shape, the right size, he’s not actually going to be able to fly.”
Dr Talbot said she was now reaching out to other wildlife hospitals and care groups in a bid to find some Stan-suitable feathers.
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