WASHINGTON — The bald eagle rescued by police in Potomac, Maryland on Thursday is doing better after downing a big meal of whole perch.
“She’s eating and that’s a good sign,” Suzanne Shoemaker of Owl Moon Raptor Center told WTOP. “She’s definitely perkier today, and the bleeding in the mouth has stopped.”
Shoemaker said the bird weighs nearly 10 pounds, and female bald eagles tend to be larger than males.
Even though Shoemaker referred to bird as “she,” they have not determined the bird’s sex.
Montgomery County police officer Jennifer Gill nicknamed the bald eagle “Trust,” when she and a fellow officer rescued the bird from a back yard in Potomac, near the intersection of River Road and Riverwood Drive.
Police received calls for the injured bird just before 9 a.m. “Trust” was unable to fly, had internal bleeding and a wounded shoulder.
The bald eagle’s lungs sound “a little bit rattlely,” Shoemaker said, but they sound better now than Thursday.
Shoemaker said mucus membranes in the bird’s mouth are pale, indicating it might have lost a lot of blood. It’s been receiving fluids, pain medicine and anti-inflammatories.
The working theory now is that “Trust” was hit by a car. There was a roadside deer carcass nearby and a passing vehicle could have flushed the bird into a car’s path.
“They do feed on carrion a lot, if it’s available,” Shoemaker said.
On Saturday, the bird will be taken to the Bennett Creek Animal Hospital for X-rays and to have blood drawn for testing to determine whether it has lead poisoning.
Eagles, hawks and vultures frequently get poisoned by lead from bullets in dead animals they find and eat.
Eventually, the bird might be transferred to Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research in Newark, Delaware. They have large “flight cages” where birds can exercise to prepare for release. Shoemaker said “Trust” is of breeding age and could be part of a nesting pair.
