The Alaska Raptor Center is soaring into the New Year with a look back at your top 10 picks of 2024!🦅 8. Did you know Bald Eagles have over 7,000 feathers? When Spirit, a Bald Eagle and Raptor-in-Residence here at the Alaska Raptor Center, molts a feather, it is collected, then sent to the National Bald Eagle Repository in Colorado. From there, the feathers are sent to Native Tribes, or to Centers like our own, to be used for educational purposes. | Alaska Raptor Center
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The Alaska Raptor Center is soaring into the New Year with a look back at your top 10 picks of 2024!🦅 8. Did you know Bald Eagles have over 7,000 feathers? When Spirit, a Bald Eagle and Raptor-in-Residence here at the Alaska Raptor Center, molts a feather, it is collected, then sent to the National Bald Eagle Repository in Colorado. From there, the feathers are sent to Native Tribes, or to Centers like our own, to be used for educational purposes. | Alaska Raptor Center
831.9K viewsDec 31, 2024
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Help support a raptor starting from the moment of admission, like this snowy owl, the first of the winter season. Your Give to the Max gift to The Raptor Center will be matched up to $80,000 thanks to our raptor heroes. You can be a raptor here, too, by checking out our giving page linked in the top of this video's comments! After falling into a wastewater management tank, this owl was covered in contaminants, and as a result, its flight was impaired. Not to mention the owl's beautiful white fea
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Help support a raptor starting from the moment of admission, like this snowy owl, the first of the winter season. Your Give to the Max gift to The Raptor Center will be matched up to $80,000 thanks to our raptor heroes. You can be a raptor here, too, by checking out our giving page linked in the top of this video's comments! After falling into a wastewater management tank, this owl was covered in contaminants, and as a result, its flight was impaired. Not to mention the owl's beautiful white fea
83K views6 months ago
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Exciting news! We're Hiring! The Raptor Center is looking for a full time veterinary technician to join our raptor hospital team. The vet tech supports the overall daily functions of TRC’s clinic by providing a continuum of veterinary and animal care for our raptor patients. Check out this postion for yourself or share with a fellow bird nerd you think would be perfect for this role. Learn more on our website at https://raptor.umn.edu/about-us/open-positions | The Raptor Center
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Exciting news! We're Hiring! The Raptor Center is looking for a full time veterinary technician to join our raptor hospital team. The vet tech supports the overall daily functions of TRC’s clinic by providing a continuum of veterinary and animal care for our raptor patients. Check out this postion for yourself or share with a fellow bird nerd you think would be perfect for this role. Learn more on our website at https://raptor.umn.edu/about-us/open-positions | The Raptor Center
5.8K views4 months ago
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You voted, and TRC’s newest raptor ambassador officially has a name! The name of this special little Northern hawk owl is Aurora because where the Aurora Borealis can be seen, the Northern hawk owl is likely nearby. Aurora is sure to delight bird lovers and inspire a passion for raptors in all who meet her. When you take a tour of The Raptor Center, you just might get to see her. Northern hawk owls like Aurora are not often seen in human care. In the wild, these owls are found in the boreal fore
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You voted, and TRC’s newest raptor ambassador officially has a name! The name of this special little Northern hawk owl is Aurora because where the Aurora Borealis can be seen, the Northern hawk owl is likely nearby. Aurora is sure to delight bird lovers and inspire a passion for raptors in all who meet her. When you take a tour of The Raptor Center, you just might get to see her. Northern hawk owls like Aurora are not often seen in human care. In the wild, these owls are found in the boreal fore
40.2K views6 months ago
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Are you afraid of the dark? We humans tend to associate darkness with all things spooky. But for the patients in TRC’s Raptor Hospital, darkness is often a good thing. Darkness can provide a sense of calm in the birds, reducing the stress they experience with overwhelming visual stimuli while in the care of strange alien creatures, a.k.a. humans. For example, when being medically treated or taken out to the field to exercise in preparation for release, a specially designed hood or a light cloth
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Are you afraid of the dark? We humans tend to associate darkness with all things spooky. But for the patients in TRC’s Raptor Hospital, darkness is often a good thing. Darkness can provide a sense of calm in the birds, reducing the stress they experience with overwhelming visual stimuli while in the care of strange alien creatures, a.k.a. humans. For example, when being medically treated or taken out to the field to exercise in preparation for release, a specially designed hood or a light cloth
30.6K views7 months ago
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This might seem a bit like hair extensions on humans, but it’s feathers, and it’s not for beauty but for a raptor’s speedier return to the skies. The process of “feather imping” has long been a part of falconry. Imping has a history going back hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and the technique involves joining the shaft of a broken flight feather to a compatible “donor feather” harvested from a bird that did not survive or a feather that was molted. If patients have damaged feathers, imping
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This might seem a bit like hair extensions on humans, but it’s feathers, and it’s not for beauty but for a raptor’s speedier return to the skies. The process of “feather imping” has long been a part of falconry. Imping has a history going back hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and the technique involves joining the shaft of a broken flight feather to a compatible “donor feather” harvested from a bird that did not survive or a feather that was molted. If patients have damaged feathers, imping
1.8M viewsMar 3, 2025
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We’re a few weeks into the new year, but it’s not too late to enjoy this video of our final release of 2025. This beautiful bald eagle, patient 25-1232, celebrated her New Year’s Eve with a triumphant return to the skies. This adult female was found grounded on the side of the road, probably hit by a car, in Eagan, MN, on Nov. 20. Her admittance exam at TRC’s raptor hospital showed significant internal trauma and a sternum fracture. She was treated with cage rest, oxygen support, and pain manage
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We’re a few weeks into the new year, but it’s not too late to enjoy this video of our final release of 2025. This beautiful bald eagle, patient 25-1232, celebrated her New Year’s Eve with a triumphant return to the skies. This adult female was found grounded on the side of the road, probably hit by a car, in Eagan, MN, on Nov. 20. Her admittance exam at TRC’s raptor hospital showed significant internal trauma and a sternum fracture. She was treated with cage rest, oxygen support, and pain manage
21K views4 months ago
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Are you ready to meet TRC patient 1,000? This little one is a very special raptor! For only the 15th time EVER in our 50-year history, our raptor hospital has admitted a Northern hawk owl (suspected male), a rare and special sighting in our neck of the woods. This stunning little owl was found injured on the side of the road, likely the victim of a car strike. Our veterinarians conducted a thorough exam and concerns were raised that the hawk owl is suffering from nerve damage in his right wing.
5.6K viewsNov 20, 2024
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Were you able to make it to TRC’s annual Raptor Release on Saturday at Carpenter Nature Center? This juvenile broad-winged hawk (BWHA), known to us as patient 25-970, was the second of four birds released at the event. He arrived at TRC’s raptor hospital on Sept. 1 from North St. Paul after colliding with a window. (A common cause of injury. Please consider applying window clings!) He suffered a hemorrhage in the right eye, a fractured keel (the bony ridge on the sternum that anchors the bird’s
11.2K views8 months ago
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Thanks to the great generosity of a couple of TRC supporters, our raptor hospital recently welcomed an exciting addition, and no, it wasn’t a baby raptor but a shiny new autoclave! As you may know, an autoclave is a critical piece of equipment in hospital settings, used to sterilize medical instruments. TRC clinic staff has even used it to sterilize deer bones used as enrichment materials for our resident ambassador birds. The new autoclave had been sorely needed, replacing a much smaller one th
5.9K views7 months ago
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The Alaska Raptor Center is wrapping up the year with a feathered flourish! Join us as we count down the top 10 posts that captured your hearts and imaginations in 2023! #4 Spirit, a Bald Eagle and Raptor-in-Residence, found her way to our Center in 2016 after being discovered in a ditch in Juneau, AK, most likely the result of being hit by a car. Though she mostly escaped unharmed, Spirit has a head tilt and very limited vision in her left eye due to scarring. She now has an important job, help
478.1K viewsDec 31, 2023
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We don’t know about you, but we are thankful for this cold weather. Last week, after cold temperatures allowed for ice to re-accumulate on our rivers and lakes, wild bald eagles congregate around areas of remaining open water, allowing us to release two juvenile bald eagles who have been in our care since July. In Minnesota, bald eagles generally hatch from their eggs in April, and fledge, meaning they start to fly and leave the nest, around early July. Juvenile bald eagles spend 8 weeks with th
10K viewsJan 13, 2025
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Experience the thrill of live birds at The Raptor Center! Enjoy our special Raptor Encounter events and meet our ambassador birds. More details on our website, click now! | The Raptor Center
1.8K viewsMar 27, 2024
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As of today, 923 wild bird patients have been admitted into TRC’s raptor hospital. Here are just a few recent releases of patients who made a full recovery and are back in the wild where they most belong. The Raptor Center’s 50th year of caring for birds in need is on track to be our busiest by far, currently outpacing our previous record of 1,183 birds in one year by 15%. As our case load increases, so too does the cost of caring for these magnificent raptors. Recently, our hospital staff admit
5.1K viewsOct 7, 2024
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The Alaska Raptor Center is wrapping up the year with a feathered flourish! Join us as we count down the top 10 posts that captured your hearts and imaginations in 2023! #7 Spirit, a Bald Eagle and Raptor-in-Residence here at the Alaska Raptor Center, is gentler than you might expect when taking a piece of fish from one of her handlers. Raptors, including Bald Eagles, use their beaks to tear and rip apart their prey. But their beaks are also delicate enough to groom their feathers or to feed foo
1.2M viewsDec 31, 2023
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The Alaska Raptor Center is wrapping up the year with a feathered flourish! Join us as we count down the top 10 posts that captured your hearts and imaginations in 2023! #6 Spirit, a Bald Eagle and Raptor-in-Residence here at the Alaska Raptor Center, is gentler than you might expect when taking a piece of fish from one of her handlers. Raptors, including Bald Eagles, use their beaks to tear and rip apart their prey. But their beaks are also delicate enough to groom their feathers or to feed foo
1M viewsDec 31, 2023
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The Alaska Raptor Center is wrapping up the year with a feathered flourish! Join us as we count down the top 10 posts that captured your hearts and imaginations in 2023! #8 Why are they called "Bald" Eagles? A Bald Eagle's white head may make it look bald, but actually, the name comes from an old English word meaning white. The Bald Eagle’s scientific name, "Haliaeetus leucocephalus", means; sea (hali), eagle (aeetos), white (leukos), and head (cephalos), as in the feathers on the eagle’s head!#
667.4K viewsDec 31, 2023
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It was TRC’s honor to release this uncommon patient, a Great Gray owl. After 10 weeks of treatment, recuperation, and reconditioning in our raptor hospital, this majestic owl was released back to its home in Northern MN. This Great Gray owl came from International Falls after being caught in a barbed wire fence. Several dedicated transport volunteers worked together to relay this owl hundreds of miles. Thankfully, the owl was able to make a stop with our partners at Wildwoods Wildlife Rehabilita
10.9K views10 months ago
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We recently admitted a very special patient into TRC’s hospital; only the 4th of its species in our 50 year history. This hatch-year raptor is the elusive American barn owl, a species of owl not commonly found in Minnesota. It is a rare treat to receive a call to help save one in need. The young barn owl was patient 964 on our road to admitting the 1,000th patient of 2024; we are on track to possibly have the busiest year in our 50-year history. This owl came to our hospital after we received a
9.8K viewsNov 1, 2024
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After a two-month stay at TRC, a red-tailed hawk was released back to the wild on January 10. The bird arrived at our raptor hospital on Nov. 11, 2024 with internal trauma and a previously injured toe, or digit, as we call them. The toe was missing its talon, and although the injury was old, the tip of the toe’s bone was infected and painful. Dr. Kaylee, TRC’s veterinary intern, came to the hawk’s rescue! She took the hawk to surgery, removed the small piece of infected bone, and closed the skin
53.7K viewsJan 31, 2025
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