Interview with Spirit (Bald Eagle)

Spirit, a Bald Eagle and Raptor-in-Residence here at the Alaska Raptor Center, helps us to educate the public about raptors and the dangers they face in the wild. We hope you enjoy this interview with Spirit and one of her Avian Care Specialists.

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The Alaska Raptor Center, located in Sitka Alaska, provides medical treatment for up to 200 injured bald eagles and other birds each year. Our goal is to release our patients back into the wild; some, however, are injured so severely they could not survive in the wild even after rehabilitation. These birds may join our Raptors-in-Residence, providing excitement and education for more than 80,000 annual visitors and for the 15,000 schoolchildren we reach through the Adopt-a-raptor program and classroom presentations around the country.

Instagram & Twitter: @Raptororg

[friotaiocht]

Sad what happened to her but she looks so good & is getting the best care possible.... she deserves it... she's a beautiful Bald Eagle...

[VioletSkye]

It breaks my heart & warms it at the same time that these beautiful birds have to stay there.

It breaks it as they should still be out there in the wild enjoying all their life as they should be

But it warms it knowing that if the worst happens, there is a caring home capable of looking after them properly

I’ll never get to see a real one, I’m a Kiwi, a human one, not the bird! & it’s a little too far to travel, so watching these videos is awesome, no injury can take away how majestic these birds are. That goes for all the other ones too.

I’m not trying to plug this to gain subs, I’m not worried about that sort of thing, but I would like to say my channel has some beautiful NZ birds on it that I feed called Tuis, iridescent teal brown & black & they exist purely on flower nectar, surprisingly, as they’re big birds.

[darlenesmith]

Spirit is a beautiful Bald Eagle. I'm glad I phoned the rehab centre looking for a Bald Eagle called Spirit . I found one that got hurt hit by a car and hurt the neck and almost lost an eye but as I see her she looks very beautiful and I asked the girl that I was talking to to show me the beautiful Bald Eagle Spirit and she did and she didn't no where she came from but rescued out of a ditch in Garneau Alaska how sweet it is .

[ElaineFoster-lkuh]

Spirit is beautiful !! I enjoyed you sharing more info about her !! She is Awesome !!!❤️😊

[VoIcanoman]

A few years ago, I spotted a fairly large raptor sitting on a neighbour's chimney. It looked pretty similar to a bald eagle, but was smaller, and its head was brown (and so I ruled out the bald eagle immediately, as their white heads are their defining trait). It flew away almost immediately after I noticed it (I only got about 5 to 10 seconds to see it, a couple seconds stationary and the rest in flight, before it was gone), and I googled incessantly to figure out what it was, before giving up after an hour or so (nothing seemed to match it). And now, more than 4 years later, I finally got my answer - it WAS a bald eagle! Just a juvenile. One bird mystery solved.

I still have another bird mystery though. I saw another raptor in my neighbourhood in the Fall of 2022. It was reasonably small (bigger than a robin, smaller than a pileated woodpecker, just using random birds for reference), and had a white breast with brown spots, and white and brown striped tail feathers. But the most distinctive thing of all, was that it was making these rapid, somewhat percussive noises (several a second), that made it sound kind of like a machine gun. Again, googling produced no results. I live in southern Manitoba (eastern Canadian prairies), and I know most of the birds that are here all/most of the time, as well as many of the ones that pass through in their migration, and I've NEVER seen something like that. I would be extremely grateful to anyone who could solve THIS bird mystery for me! Thanks.

Edit: I think I've found it. Pretty sure the second mystery bird was a northern harrier.

[LaurieFloodTeacher]

You didn't answer the main question that I have. Is Spirit capable of flying around and is she allowed to fly around there?

[somewhereoutthereyouthinki]

Well so she from Alaska
That very could there...
Probably she get nuts in
Places that so hot there

That friendly dangerous one
Beautiful Bird I 🦅
.

[Rossdie]

Now if Alaska airlines would totally fix their maintenance problems just maybe, they would quit crashing planes.

[SharkEsq]

Did she just pull that rat tail out with her bare hand and then wipe her hand on the back of her sweater?