Carolina Raptor Center.

Today we visited Carolina Raptor Center for the rehabilitation and care of injured and orphaned hawks, owls, eagles, and vultures.

There are more than 100 birds that live permanently at the center: birds on the public display trail and birds that travel to exhibits and education programs.Would you like to name a bird or to release a raptor ? Also you can adopt a bird. Become a parent and support the care and feeding of Carolina Raptor Center's resident raptors. Makes a great gift, too! There are many ways how to support the Center.

This is Russel, the Red-tailed Hawk, I met her today and made this photo.

Russell came to Carolina Raptor Center in March, 2004. She had been found on the side of the road, with an eye injury that left her blind in her right eye. She was most likely hit by a car, the most common cause of injury for raptors at Carolina Raptor Center. When Russell came to Carolina Raptor Center, we assumed that she was a boy because in the raptor world, males are usually smaller than females by about 1/3 and Russell was very small. So she received a boy’s name, but through recent DNA testing we have discovered that Russell is actually a girl. Russell is a red-tailed hawk, but when she first came to Carolina Raptor Center she did not have a red tail. Her brown tail marked her as a juvenile bird. She had hatched the previous spring. The majority of young raptors do not survive through their first winter, and Russell would have been one of the many unlucky ones if someone had not found her and brought her to our rehabilitation center. We were not able to repair the damage to her eye, but now she is living the life of a raptor ambassador at Carolina Raptor Center. -  info via Carolina Raptor Center website