Disfigured eagle to get a new beak

She has been named Beauty, though this eagle is anything but. Part of Beauty’s beak was shot off several years ago, leaving her with a stump that is useless for hunting food. A team of volunteers is working to attach an artificial beak to the disfigured bird, in an effort to keep her alive. ‘For Beauty it’s like using only one chopstick to eat. It can’t be done,’ said biologist Jane Fink Cantwell, who operates a raptor recovery center in Idaho. ‘She has trouble drinking. She can’t preen her feathers. That’s all about to change.’ Cantwell has spent the last two years assembling a team to design and build an artificial beak. They plan to attach it to Beauty next month. With the beak, the 7-year-old bald eagle could live to the age of 50, although not in the wild. ‘She could not survive in the wild without human intervention,’ Cantwell said.