Injured Eagle Recovering, but Cannot Fly Anymore

He no longer will soar into the sky or sweep low, gliding on his six-foot wing span, but a golden eagle that was run over by a vehicle outside Victorville last month is recuperating well.

Both the eagle’s wings were broken, and one of them had to be amputated, according to Scott Weldy, who runs the Orange County Bird of Prey Center. The surgery took place Monday at that Lake Forest rehabilitation clinic for raptors.

“The good thing about this one is that he is very calm,” said Weldy, the veterinarian who performed the operation.

Weldy said he is talking with the Orange County Zoo in Santa Ana about the possibility of housing the bird there. If it doesn’t accept the eagle, Weldy will put the bird on display when his clinic moves to a new facility in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park next year.

If he has to keep it, he said, he plans to tame the eagle enough to sit on his arm during demonstrations.

The golden eagle apparently was feeding on a coyote killed by a motorist off Interstate 15 when another vehicle struck the bird, fracturing both wings. Its right wing joint became infected.

This was only the seventh time Weldy has treated a golden eagle in his 11 years at the Bird of Prey Center. The nonprofit clinic cares for about 200 to 300 other kinds of raptors, such as hawks, each year.