Need Raptor ID (SW Missouri) (1 Viewer)

[Cat Hill]

Sadly, this raptor was put down at the University of Missouri. He (or she) was sitting on one of our flat trailers when I got home from work a couple of years back. It was about this time of year and we had snow on the ground and ice coming down. He seemed to just be waiting to be rescued, a lot like the other wildlife that have found their way here. I had rescued and rehabbed other raptors in the past and noted right away that this fella was all too calm and too close to the house to be "just" visiting.

I got out of my car and spoke to him, he just looked at me. I walked close and he hopped off the trailer to the ground with his back to me and just turned and looked again then made a few hops away then stopped. I called out to my husband who was nearby, stacking his cut wood and he took his coat off and gently placed it over the raptor and carried him to the garage to a little temporary cage, small so he couldn't flap around....but he never did. From the start, this raptor was docile and calm. He took dead as well as live food (barn mice I caught by leaving a feed bin open on purpose, and dead that my cat caught and left on the door step). He would take anything I offered and was a ravenous eater but as gentle as a pet when the food was offered, never hissing or striking. It was like feeding a baby bird actually. He drank from a pan of water and I have to say, I was amazed at his first reaction. He pulled the pan towards him and tipped it just enough to dip his beak deep in the water and drank a lot.

I'm an RN and love taking in and rehabbing anything that needs it but from the start, I felt this raptor was going to need more than I could provide so I contacted our local zoo, not even a response....then after looking into several raptor rescues, found the closest one in Columbia, Mo. It was a few weeks before they could send some of the students (Veterinary students) to pick him up. He thrived and became quite the pet, taking food from my hand and always perking up when I approached. I hated to see him leave but it was for the best. During that time, I spent countless hours in front of the computer trying to determine what sort of raptor he was, sending the few photo's I had taken at the beginning to any place I could for help to identify him but nothing matched.

Sadly, the Raptor rescue determined that after he was examined, x-rays and bloodwork that he would not have a quality of life and euthanized him then preserved him for future students......I will not go into how angry this made me but suffice it to say that I will never again entrust a rescue to one of these so-called rescues. He was doing extremely well here... I'm certain he would have had a quality life had I kept him and I am capable of doing so.

They were "good" enough to email me to tell me what they did to him and to tell me they were never able to identify what he was.

I may never learn his true identity but he will always remain in my heart and thoughts and to give him an identity would be so nice.

Attached are the photo's I took when I first rescued him, I'm so sorry I didn't take more, it's not like me to not document more but the whole time he was here was during an ice storm.

 

[Birdbrain22]

This is a Red-tailed Hawk(either just a pale form or possibly a Krider's).

Seems like you need to find a better rehabber or one you trust more, but maybe there was something in the bloodwork that would have inevitably caused more suffering for the bird, so they made that decision. Just playing devil's advocate there.

 

[fugl]

It's a young Red-tailed Hawk. I'm sorry that it had such a bad end. How unimpressive that the rehabber couldn't even figure out the species!

 

[Cat Hill]

Thank you, Kriders was actually the only thing I found that was even close but the head seemed too different, most I found had a flatter head. This one's head was so round, and it wasn't just the feathers making it look that way.
Why in the world could a University Animal Hospital not be able to clearly identify such a common species?

 

[ceasar]

Cat Hill,

The University of Missouri, College of Veterinary Medicine has a RAPTOR REHABILITATION PROJECT and it has a website:

http://raptorrehab.cvm.missouri.edu/

It is a pretty impressive website which is not surprising since it is State funded and there doesn't seem to be any good reason why the people who run it could not have given you a more detailed reason for "putting the bird down." Was it physically injured or perhaps it was diseased?

It seems you ran into the kind of bureaucratic response that is, unfortunately, typical of the responses the public gets from many state agencies.

Two things State Agencies do not like are light and heat. Why don't you send them another polite request and ask them to give you more information on the case on why they had to destroy the bird because you have asked about it on Bird Forum and inquiring people there would like to know. You could make it an inquiry through your legislator if you like.

Bob

PS: I agree that it is a "Kriders" Red-tailed Hawk. In Wheeler's "Raptors of North America" it is designated the "Pale Morph" of the Eastern Red-tailed Hawk. I don't know if that is universally acknowledged though.

 

[Cat Hill]

Bob,
Thank you, it's been a few years (I don't let go of things like that easily) so I doubt anyone there now even remembers the raptor. I have the raptor website. That was how I found them in the first place. Most people probably would not have been given many details by them because it wouldn't have mattered or made sense but as an RN and understanding the impact of the lab work and radiology findings, it would have been nice for them to share but they chose not to.

In their eyes, it didn't matter what I thought about it. I suppose it's rational to say it was not my pet, I had no authority etc. In fact, in all reality, I had no business with the raptor in my possession and he was a protected bird. All of that doesn't stop or even slow me down if they land in my lap, as they seem to do. I'm the drop off spot. One day I'll actually get a wildlife permit, maybe.

 

[Cat Hill]

And sorry, I forgot to point out the injury was to his leg. Shot clean through, the bone shattered. He had use of his foot and was more mobile every day. I believe he was put down because he could not have been rehabbed for release and was not valuable enough to keep him indefinitely.

In a way, I do understand. It was extremely expensive feeding him for just a few weeks. Had I been given the opportunity though, I would have taken him back in a minute. I would have found ways to manage the feed bill thing. I could have built him an aviary that was suited to his needs. They just didn't ask and I felt responsibility for his well being. Having a bum leg may mean he would not have been a candidate for release at any point but that did not mean he would not have adjusted to life here. Heck, he was already settled in here. When they came to get him, I coaxed him out of his cage with some meat, I accidentally dropped it and he stepped out, picked his meat up and went back into his cage. I've never had such a magnificent raptor to be so....well, you know. He trusted me and I felt I let him down. That won't happen again.

We do have a great number of hawks here and even more owls. My husband and I call to the owls at night and often have a symphony going. All sorts of owls. I'm amazed sometimes. The songbirds and other smaller birds, oddly, are not so numerous and we're in a very rural setting. I rarely see even cardinals or blue jays here. There are a few of the usual winter visitors and in the summer, the bluebirds and little indigo buntings, gold finches and humming birds are around. We have a place on the river not far from home and have even had a few Prothonotary Warbler's there and one year, there were swans on the river, a pair plus a young one. I figured them to be trumpeters because they were different than my Mute pair.

 

[TLeukering]

Juvenile Krider's (whatever that is) Red-tailed Hawk