Bald Eagle Can’t Fly : Bird Brain Gets CAT Scan

A grounded 2-year-old bald eagle named Sarah was given a CAT scan, a sophisticated type of X-ray usually reserved for humans, by veterinarians trying to determine why she can’t fly.

The 12-pound anesthetized bird was strapped on an operating table for the scan of her head. Her yellow-brown talons stuck out of what looked like blue terry cloth sterile booties.

The CAT, or computerized axial tomography, scan Thursday at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center revealed no head injury or other abnormalities, said Dr. Michael A. Davis, director of radiology research at the center.

So veterinarians have scheduled the bird for a brain scan next week, Davis said.

Sarah, who has a seven-foot wingspan, was recently found unable to fly near Lake Erie in New York. The bird had been raised and released from Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts in 1984 as part of a five-year effort to restore the species, which disappeared in Massachusetts about 100 years ago.

Experts said if further tests show that the bird was poisoned by a heavy metal like mercury, there may be a need to examine the Lake Erie area for pollutants that could poison other animals.