Wounded Osprey, Few Bloody Pics

Those are quite the pictures. Hope he makes out OK.

Great story, I want to thank you for being there to do the right thing, not alot of people would know what to do. Sounds like the bird knew what was best for itself at the time, being relaxed etc.. I had a small sparrow hawk slam into the front window and knock itself out. It was still breathing when I found it so I brought it inside and put it in a dark box in the corner till it started to make noise. I checked it out real quick to make sure that it didn't have anything broken or need to go to the animal hospital. It looked OK and was flapping it's wings without any hint of injury so I took the box outside and let it leave on it's own. Only reason I brought it in was to keep any cats or dogs from finding a new chew toy.

Way to go Kraig, weve got to look out for what we love to look at and shoot pics of!!

DonE wrote in post #3136963
Way to go Kraig, weve got to look out for what we love to look at and shoot pics of!!

Nailed it Don. Hope the Osprey recovers.

Right on! What a cool experience. Keep us posted on the recovery.

Good work Don and a great story to hear. I do raptor rehab myself and we rely on people just like you to help save these amazing animals. While it's true what they have said about stress in raptors/birds and in particular to Ospreys it is a real factor that can cause a birds death. Casting the bird (wrapping in towel) was the right thing to do but you should always cover the head so the bird can't see thus causing far less stress untill it can be put in a hospital box.

Mitch is certainly correct about the power and danger of Talons, most people worry about the dangerous looking beaks but the real danger is in-fact the Talcons. Osprey have very large/long talons in comparison to the size of the bird itself. They actually fire shut when closing, it's not a grasping but like someone just pulled a trigger and snap! They also have a ratchiting system so if they dont want to let go you can't do alot about it.

Osprey are not very intelligent and even though they may look down and see it's not food in their grip their brain just doesn't work that way as their feet still tell the brain I have some food in my grip and thus they often just can't seem to let go. For an example of power large adult eagles I have read can squeeze out an amazing 2ton PSI in their talons !

So as Mitch has said once you cast (cover/wrap the bird with cloth) do hold the legs and keep yourself safe of those nasty talons. I hope the bird recovers, though with an eye injury it may not be able to be released sadly.

Wow, that ospreys looks pretty beat up. You did a great job getting it safely to the animal hospital. You prevented the osprey from getting hurt further AND no one else got hurt. Hurt animals are quite dangerous. I'm glad it didn't lash out and scratch or bite you. At this point, it's in the hands of the vets. Keep us updated.

I agree with mitcon about covering the head, but there's not much that will work off hand and with the injury primarily to the beak/head, it may not have been ideal to try to put anything over the injury, so don't worry no telling what the bird might have done to prevent any further injury, if it were to try and refuse the head covering you might have wound up with a severe clutch of puncture wounds to a vital part of your body.....

The eye's look good! They are evenly spaced, level with the other eye and looking in the right directions with respect to the other eye, the injury does not apear to be in the eye itself but more related to swelling of the tissue around the trama in the beak and skull, unfortunately, if the beak is cracked and does not heal on it's own without epoxy's or some mechanical advantage, it cannot be used in the same capacity to rip at it's meals. I am no expert but, it makes sense to me, it wouldn't be able to be released because it couldn't use it's beak to rip bites of food off whatever it caught, so it wouldn't be able to eat it's normal diet etc..