On Oct. 21st, RAPTOR volunteer Dan Bailey was dispatched to the corner of 6th and Race streets downtown to pick up an injured raptor. Most times we are not quite sure exactly what type of bird it will turn out to be – this time it was an immature Cooper’s Hawk, CH 14-25. These birds are common woodland hawks normally found prowling near a forest edge or possibly near a backyard bird feeder. Apparently the “coop” was able to find a ready supply of smaller birds for his prey in downtown Cincinnati.

CH 14-25 was found to be a bit dazed with five primary feathers on its right side broken off. Primary feathers are feathers that extend from the birds “hand” which are very strong and important for flight. After a week in rehab, the bird was active and energetic

but, with the missing flight feathers, was a poor flyer that would not be able to successfully hunt other birds for food. Unfortunately, the Cooper’s Hawk would not grow replacement feathers until next summer when new feathers grow in as part of the normal yearly feather “molt”. This would require RAPTOR to keep this bird for an extremely long time, and possibly risk further injury or feather damage.

The decision was made to “imp” in new feathers. The imping process was developed by

ancient falconers as a way of repairing broken feathers of their hunting birds. RAPTOR obtained replacement feathers from a dead donor bird of the same species and size. These feathers were then grafted to the stubs of the broken feathers using wood splints and Krazy glue. Each broken feather was matched to a new, perfect feather from the same position on the donor bird. The new feathers were then trimmed so that the overall length of each new feather plus the length of the broken feather’s stub exactly equaled the length of the corresponding unbroken feather.

Splints were made by carefully shaving small bamboo skewers normally used for making kabobs until they just fit into the hollow shafts of the feather stubs on the bird as well as the trimmed ends of the donor feathers. Once he splints were made, the feathers were attached using Krazy glue. The glue set up instantly and holds well. Mind you, the bird was not happy at all during this operation, but neither the bird nor its helpers were injured in the process.

Once all of the new feathers were attached, CH 14-25 was placed in a flight cage for exercise and flight evaluation. After about a week, the new feathers were holding up nicely and our coop was flying like a banshee and ready for release.

RAPTOR normally attempts to release birds near to where they were originally found, since they have their own territories. In this case, CH 14-25 was immature and had not yet established its own territory. We felt that downtown was not the best habitat so CH 14-25 was released at RAPTOR’s facility in Milford. Dan Bailey, the volunteer who originally picked up the bird, did the honors on December 11th.

~By, Cindy Alverson