Phoenix the Peregrine Falcon
It was Thursday, August 11th at 9:45 PM. We were returning home from a capture and transport duty when Peggy’s cell phone rang. The call revealed that a medium-sized hawk had flown into a wall in Andreas, about 30 miles Northwest of Allentown, and was injured. Since we were already on the road, we met a middle-aged couple who had the bird safely contained in a dog carrier.
As Peggy carefully peered into the carrier, the couple explained how the bird left a blood streak down the brick wall of the neighbor’s home 3 hours earlier. Everyone fell silent as Peggy softly exclaimed, “My goodness, it’s a Peregrine.”
The juvenile, female Peregrine Falcon had three bands on her legs: the right leg had a silver “FWS” band and the left leg had a black “B” band over a green “4″ band. We would later learn that she was banded on May 18th at the Bayonne Bridge, Staten Island, New York. She appeared to be this year’s bird, since there was no transition plumage. Her “accident” occurred approximately 107 miles from where she was banded.
 
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Peregrine Falcons are known to exceed 250 mph in a stoop. Judging from the severity and the extent of her head trauma, she must have hit that brick wall “at speed.” There was such swelling in her head that her eyes protruded almost completely from their sockets. Additionally, her left eye showed a large occlusion over the iris. We logged the symptoms as: cerebral and ocular edema with ocular hyphema.
Realizing that immediate treatment was indicated, we called our Veterinarian, Dr. Bridget McMahon from Kutztown Animal Hospital, at her home around 10:30PM. She is a Certified Avian Veterinarian without whom the prognosis for many Birds of Prey admitted through our Center would be dismal at best.
After an extended discussion of the clinical signs, we decided on a course of treatment and medication was administered by I.V. injection.
Despite her injuries, this was an extremely powerful, quick and agile bird making intravenous injection difficult. Although she appeared in a stupor when left untouched,handling produced a strong and powerful struggle. Believe me, this was no easy task! The bird fought with us the entire time, using its athletic build to thwart our every attempt at keeping it still.
That night all we could do was to hope the drug would have the necessary effect.
The next morning brought good news: the cerebral swelling had almost completely subsided and her eyes were back in their sockets! Her left eye was filled with blood and her right eye appeared almost normal. Although she had no reaction to movement and appeared completely blind the bird reacted strongly when a bright light was shined in both eyes. We were hopeful that the nerves were undamaged. She no longer appeared in a stupor but was quite curious as to her surroundings and was immediately interested in food.
Over the next few weeks the right eye slowly regained its normal function and seemed unimpaired. With the aide of steroidal eye drops, the blood in the left eye has all but dissipated, leaving a small fibrin clot in the center of the eye.
We later took the Peregrine to see Dr. Jeffrey Bowersox at the The Veterinary Specialty Center of Delaware. He is a veterinary opthamologist with extensive avian experience. We were hoping surgery could restore his sight well enough to hunt.
The examination showed a catarac formation and damage to the optical nerve. The Peregrine was considered non-releasable.
We took home our newest permenent resident and named her Phoenix. Phoenix is now training to be a education bird that will visit schools and teach children about wildlife.
