ELGIN, Texas — An injured bald eagle is on the road to recovery at the Austin Wildlife Rescue facility in Elgin.
Some good Samaritans found the bird on Dec. 15 in a field near Smithville.
“It was unable to take off. It was unable to fly,” Austin Wildlife Rescue Executive Director Jules Maron said.
A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game warden drove the bird two hours to the facility.
Maron believes another bald eagle attacked it based on its fractured wing and a sizeable open wound.
“The bone is actually exposed on his wings, so it’s a compound fracture,” Maron said. “A bunch of the flesh was ripped away on the wing, exposing one of the bones that had fractured.”
When the bird arrived, vets began treatment immediately. They started by splinting the wing, applying different topicals and administering antibiotics and pain medications.
“Whenever eagles come into us, they usually have pretty catastrophic injuries, so the sooner we can get in there and start treatment, the better,” Maron said.
On Friday, the vet reexamined the bald eagle and determined it needed surgery as the bone had begun fusing.
“We needed to put a metal pin all the way up his wing where that fracture site was to stabilize it because the bone was starting to heal on itself and fusing both ends on the broken ends,” Maron said. “It was just essential to make sure that we gave him enough time to heal if he could, but also not wait too long before the surgery would not be something that would work.”
Severely injured birds with broken wings are kept in crates for a bit to allow their bones to heal. In about a month or so, they will move the eagle outside to a large space where the bird can stretch its wings and start to fly again. The bald eagle will be in the large flight cage so it can practice its flying and build its muscles.
The bird will need months of intensive care and rehabilitation before being released back into the wild. Throughout the healing process, there will be frequent bandage changes and close monitoring.
“The longest part is waiting for that flesh wound to heal and for feathers to grow back,” Maron said. “Feathers are the longest thing to wait on. Sometimes that can even take up to a year.”
The arrival of the eagle coincided with a major milestone for the species. On Christmas Eve, President Joe Biden signed Senate Bill 4610 into law, officially designating the bald eagle as the national bird of the United States of America. The bird has long been a symbol of the nation, symbolizing its power and strength.
“It’s especially exciting to get a bird in like this who’s now a celebrity,” Maron said. “I always forget how big and strong they are until they come in, and there’s just nothing like that. They’re just beautiful, and they’re so strong.”
Bald eagles are not very common in the Austin area. Maron said they get about one or two per year. The last one came in with a broken bone in 2022 and was released at the beginning of 2024.
“When we get those eagles in, it takes a very long time to care for them,” Maron said.
The nonprofit organization has had a record-breaking year. They have taken in and cared for 9,744 animals, and that number is only expected to increase next year. In 2025, Maron says they plan to hire more staff members to keep up with the increasing number of animals.
“It’s a major operation that takes a lot of hands and a lot of donations as well to keep the place running,” Maron said.
Austin Wildlife Rescue is entirely donation-based and doesn’t charge people who bring injured animals for treatment.
“Medical costs alone are over $100,000 food and supplies alone are over $100,000,” Maron said. “That’s why donations are just so important to be able to go towards that.”