This bald eagle fell from a nest. Now, it’s ready for the wild — with a taste for iguana
Zoo Miami’s Ron Magill has his eagle eye on Saturday.
He says that’s when “will hopefully be the highlight of over five months of dedicated work by a team of wildlife conservationists to not only save the life of our national bird, but to be able to release it back into the wild where she belongs!”
Here’s what has Magill, a board member of Wildlife Rescue of Dade County, so excited about Aug. 21.
The eaglet’s adventure
On March 13, Magill and Wildlife Rescue founder, Lloyd Brown, a fellow Miami Palmetto High classmate, helped rescue an eaglet that had been cast from its bald eagle’s nest in South Miami by a violent South Florida storm. Two chicks from that damaged nest fell 85 feet to the ground. One died. The other, still alive, lay at the base of the nest tree, injured with a broken wing and severely dehydrated.
Wildlife Rescue team member Jemma Peterson and Audubon Eagle Watch volunteer Jeanne Kaufmann, who first told Magill about the situation, helped on the scene as one of the eaglet’s parents circled above.
The eaglet was taken to the Wildlife Rescue facility for treatment, surgery and an uncertain rehabilitation. The Ron Magill Conservation Endowment at the Zoo Miami Foundation funded all out-of-pocket expenses during the five-month process.
The recovery and rehab
Would the eaglet learn to fly? She was injured before she was old enough to fly. Would she be able to fend for herself in the wild?
This would fall to the humans to take over tasks a bald eagle parent usually assumes.
“Thanks to the dedication of the entire team, including avian veterinary specialist Dr. Don Harris and the staff at VCA South Dade Animal Hospital, this amazing raptor has made a full recovery from her injuries and is now ready to be released,” Magill said in an email to the Miami Herald.
The eaglet has spent the last five months at a specially designed large raptor rehabilitation flight enclosure to recover and build her flight strength.
To rehabilitate the injured eaglet, Brown and his team provided regular flying exercises to build up her strength, taught her how to fish and how to consider other food options that she may encounter in the wild.
Eating iguanas
The team didn’t expect this unexpected result: The eaglet loved iguana.
“This is a unique adaptation to the South Florida environment with a potentially beneficial impact on efforts to control an invasive species,” Magill said in a statement. “Should this individual be successfully released into the wild and eventually raise chicks of her own, the hope would be that she would teach her chicks to also hunt iguanas, thereby creating a generation of bald eagles that would help provide a natural control over the population of these invasive lizards.”
Video of the eagle’s release
Saturday’s release near Everglades National Park would be the first time in the eaglet’s life where she will fly free in the wild. The release isn’t open to the public but the eaglet family’s next adventures could become visible to bird and nature lovers.
Magill’s endowment also went toward the installation of a more secure nesting platform, along with high resolution cameras, at the nest site in South Miami that was destroyed by the storm.
“The hope is that the parent eagles will return to build another nest and successfully raise chicks. If they do indeed return, their activity will be live-streamed for the world to see and hopefully inspire a love and admiration for these beautiful raptors,” Magill said.
How will the weather be for this bald eagle’s first solo flight into the wild? The National Weather Service in Miami forecasts a 30% chance of thunderstorms Saturday. But it will be hot, with highs of about 90 with a heat index over 100.
This story was originally published August 20, 2021 at 2:02 PM.
