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Car strikes are a major cause of raptor
injuries. They generally happen at night with owls swooping
down low over the roads, and also occur to all raptors that are
eating road kill.
60-80 Million
birds are killed each year by vehicles
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Bald
Eagle
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Raptors are Shot. This Eagle has three broken bones and over
30 shot (including the wings and legs not shown).
It is illegal to shoot any bird, excepting those in season, and
raptors and song birds are never allowed to be hunted.
Fighting Cock owners shoot them, as do people thinking they will
take their chickens, game birds, sheep or live stock. Some people
shoot raptors for no apparent reason. It is against federal law, and
international treaty to shoot any migratory bird.
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| Fighting Cock owners illegally snare them as they
don't want them to take their expensive chickens. This is
illegal. This photograph was provided by Federal Wildlife law
enforcement and was used as evidence. At the lower portion of the
picture are the cages for the fighting cocks. The raptor gets
caught in a noose type snare and often ends up with a broken leg and
dies by starvation, unless the fighting cock owner shoots them
first.
Even though Cock fighting has been outlawed in Oklahoma it still is
going on.
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Power lines are a major problem for Eagles.
They are looking down and their wings rise above their body.
174 Million
birds are killed each year by power lines
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| Radio and TV towers have guy wires that go unseen by
birds. They are very hard to see in the photograph even when
you are looking for them.
We rescued a Turkey Vulture from the base of this tower.
The injury was several days old and a compound fracture. The bird
had to be euthanized.
29 Million
birds are killed each year by communication towers
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Wind turbine farm outside of Las
Vegas
Birds eye view of Ponnequin
turbine
farm in Northern Colorado-Bloomberg News
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Wind turbine farms appeared to be a good
source of renewable energy. Environmentalists heavily promoted
them. The technology is just becoming economically feasible and they
are cropping up all over the country. They are placed in high
prevailing wind areas as you might expect. However nobody
apparently realized (or cared) that these winds are also used by
migrating birds.
The Altamont Pass Wind Area Resource is located East of San
Francisco Bay. Since the 7000 giant wind turbines began operation 20
years ago, an estimated 22,000 birds have died flying into the spinning
blades or the power lines going to them. Altamont Pass each year
kills an estimated 881-1,300 birds, including 57-116 Golden Eagles,
209-300 Red-Tailed hawks., 99-380 burrowing owls, 73-333 American
Kestrels, 8-10 Great Horned Owls, 15-24 Ferruginous hawks, and 36-49
Barn owls.
33,000
birds are killed each year by wind turbines.
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Barbed
wire is especially hard on Owls and Prairie chickens. Owls fly low
in the process of catching prey and are often injured, and if not
found often die.
Prairie
chickens are naturally low fliers and their numbers have declined
drastically with barbed wire being a major contributor. There are
conservation efforts to remove unneeded barbed wire in their habitat
areas.
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X-Ray of a Mississippi Kite. This bird was confiscated by a game ranger and delivered in a parakeet cage with a hot dog in the bottom of the cage.
Improper diet lead to 8 fractures. The bird was kept in rehab an extensive period of time but could never fly and had to be
euthanized. Mammals get their calcium from their mothers milk.
Raptors get it by eating bone in rodents, and fish. Their bones go through extraordinary growth and an improper diet for even two days, when they are young, can result in their inability to
ever fly.
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Owls run into soccer nets, left up overnight, while hunting for
rodents.
They get severe wing and sometimes eye damage and will starve to
death unless found quickly.
Always take down your nets, before dark.
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Utilities and individuals usually trim tree in the spring when new growth
appears.
This is when squirrels and birds have young in their
nest. Over 95 percent of the squirrels and a high
percentage of Screech owls and other birds brought into rehab are caused by tree
trimmers.
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This Eagle ingested an unknown poison. It could have been poison set out for rats, pigeons or coyotes,
or some industrial chemical. In either event, it was caused by
man. Never put out poison, as you don't know for sure who will
ingest it. This bird had to be forced-fed for four
weeks. It finally
recovered, but was not releasable. It has been transferred to the Sutton
Avian Research Center for use in education.
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Land fills typically have methane burners, which burn off the
methane gas from the decomposing buried organic material. The
burners routinely
go out and are re-ignited and flare up. It's not uncommon for hawks
to land on them and be burned. If the now flightless birds,
are not rescued quickly they will
starve.
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Eagles, and other birds are often struck by aircraft. They can
do a hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to a jet engine and
if the strike is on a single engine fighter can cause loss of the
aircraft, and perhaps a pilot. The picture is of a C-130 flying near
Tacoma, Washington, and an eagle came through the skin of the
aircraft, and into the cabin, striking the pilot. If the strike had been a couple of feet higher it may have
severely injured the pilot. The eagle was killed, and the
pilot and crew were very lucky.
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Habitat destruction is still the major force
threatening all wildlife. There is no prey in a parking
lot. When developers bulldoze and fill in a pond, they
displace a hawk. When they cut down trees, they displaced an owl. |
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Over 100 million birds are killed by free-roaming cats each
year. The photographs of the car strike, owl
snare, windmill farm, and C-130 were provided by others with permission
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What Causes the
Problem