Blue Ridge Wildlife Center Patient of the Week: Red-tailed Hawk

Sometimes, it takes a village!

This adult Red-tailed Hawk was spotted hanging from its leg in a tree. It’s possible this bird got stuck when it tried to get at a squirrel’s nest that was also found in the tree.

Photos / Blue Ridge Wildlife Center

Thankfully, the finder was able to get assistance from an arborist and the Boyce Volunteer Fire Company to climb up the tree and free the bird.

You can view the video of the rescue on the Boyce Volunteer Fire Company’s Facebook page. The rescue went well, and the hawk was brought to us for evaluation.

Upon admission, we noticed the patient had a degloving injury (top layers of skin and tissue were torn away) on the leg that was stuck, and had weak use of the foot below the injury. The wound was cleaned and bandaged, and the bird was started on pain medications and antibiotics. This patient has already started to eat on its own, but it is not yet using the weak leg fully.

Sometimes, it takes a village to save an animal! We are so thankful to the many people who were involved in this bird’s rescue, and to the photos that the Boyce Volunteer Fire Company shared with us of its rescue.

We’ll be monitoring this bird’s progress closely, and hope to get it back out to the wild soon!

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