The bald eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle, which occupies the same niche as the bald eagle in the Palearctic. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico. It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting.
The sandhill crane is a species of large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird refers to their habitat such as the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's Sandhills on the American Great Plains. Sandhill cranes are known to frequent the edges of bodies of water. The central Platte River valley in Nebraska is the most important stopover area for the nominotypical subspecies, the great sandhill crane, with up to 450,000 of these birds migrating through annually.
The whooping crane is an endangered crane species, native to North America, named for its “whooping” calls. Along with the sandhill crane, it is one of only two crane species native to North America, and it is also the tallest North American bird species. The whooping crane's lifespan is estimated to be 22-24 years in the wild. After being pushed to the brink of extinction, due to unregulated hunting and loss of habitat, and just 21 wild cranes remaining by 1941, conservation efforts would lead to a partial recovery. The total number of cranes in the surviving migratory population, plus three reintroduced flocks and in-captivity, only slightly exceeds 800 birds as of 2020.
Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo, located in Bridgeport, Connecticut, is the only Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)-accredited zoo in the state of Connecticut. The zoo includes one of the few carousels in the state. The zoo has around 500 animals, from over 100 species, and welcomes about 280,000 visitors a year.
The Alaska Raptor Center is a raptor rehabilitation center in Sitka in the U.S. state of Alaska. Located on a 17–acre campus bordering the Tongass National Forest and the Indian River. The mission of the Alaska Raptor Center is to promote and enhance wild populations of raptors and other avian species through rehabilitation, education and research. Although the main patients are raptors, especially bald eagles, the center will take any bird in need of care. The Alaska Raptor Center receives between 100–200 birds a year, with many suffering from some sort of trauma. They have treated birds with injuries from electrocution, collisions, gunshot wounds, leg hold traps, starvation, disease and lead poisoning.
Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve is a Florida State Park just west of Copeland, Florida. It is located in the Fakahatchee Strand, a thread of forested strand (swamp) in Big Cypress, a section of the Florida Everglades off SR 29.
Raptor rehabilitation is a field of veterinary medicine dealing with care for sick or injured birds of prey, with the goal of returning them to the wild. Since raptors are highly specialized predatory birds, special skills, facilities, equipment, veterinary practices and husbandry methods are necessary.
Lindsay Wildlife Experience, formerly known as Lindsay Wildlife Museum, is a family museum and wildlife rehabilitation center in Walnut Creek, California. Lindsay is the first wildlife hospital established in the United States, and a popular family museum in the San Francisco East Bay Area. Founded in Walnut Creek in 1955, the museum's programs "connect people with wildlife to inspire responsibility and respect for the world we share." The museum features a number of California wildlife exhibits, natural history specimens, and a special theater offering a look into one of the hospital's many wildlife treatment rooms. The rehabilitation center—still among the largest in the country—treats more than 5,000 injured, sick, or orphaned wild animals each year.
Huron Wetland Management District is located in the U.S. state of South Dakota and includes 17,518 acres (70.89 km2). The refuge borders the Missouri River on the east and is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Huron WMD covers eight counties in east-central South Dakota. The topography of this area ranges from flat, gently rolling drift prairie to the Missouri Coteau hills in the western end of the district. The district lies in the midst of the world-renowned Prairie Pothole Region.
Lacreek National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge of the United States located in South Dakota. It covers 16,410 acres (66.4 km2) and is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Cascades Raptor Center is a nature center and wildlife hospital in Eugene, Oregon that specializes in raptor rehabilitation. As of November 2020, permanent inhabitants of the center include 37 individual birds from 21 species.
The Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS) is a non-profit environmental education organization based in Quechee, Vermont. Its mission is to motivate individuals and communities to care for the environment through education, research, and avian wildlife rehabilitation.
The Raptor Trust is a wild bird rehabilitation center located in the Millington section of Long Hill Township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States, and surrounded by the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.
The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act is a United States federal statute that protects two species of eagle. The bald eagle was chosen as a national emblem of the United States by the Continental Congress of 1782 and was given legal protection by the Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940. This act was expanded to include the golden eagle in 1962. Since the original Act, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act has been amended several times. It currently prohibits anyone, without a permit issued by the Secretary of the Interior, from "taking" bald eagles. Taking is described to include their parts, nests, or eggs, molesting or disturbing the birds. The Act provides criminal penalties for persons who "take, possess, sell, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, at any time or any manner, any bald eagle ... [or any golden eagle], alive or dead, or any part, nest, or egg thereof."
The Imperial National Wildlife Refuge protects wildlife habitat along 30 miles (50 km) of the lower Colorado River in Arizona and California, including the last un-channeled section before the river enters Mexico. The Imperial Refuge Wilderness, a federally designated, 15,056-acre (60.93 km2), wilderness area is protected within the refuge. It also surrounds the Picacho State Recreation Area. This section of the Colorado River is popular for boating, hiking, fishing, camping, exploring old mining camps and wildlife watching.
The Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge, located in the high central plains of northeastern New Mexico, was established in 1965 as a feeding and resting area for migratory birds. Over 350 acres (1.4 km2) of the refuge are planted with wheat, corn, barley, and alfalfa to provide food for resident and migratory wildlife. Visitors may see bald and golden eagles, falcons, hawks, sandhill cranes, ducks, white pelicans, burrowing owls, great horned owls, black-tailed prairie dogs, raccoons, coyotes, skunks, cougars, muskrats, badgers, bobcats, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and the occasional elk.
The Nature and Wildlife Discovery Center is a multi-campus nature preserve and educational center in Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The NWDC is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt corporation which includes a 611 acres (247 ha) mountain park, lodge, gift shop, and museum in Beulah, a small museum and educational center as well as an open-space park on the Arkansas River in Pueblo, and an adjacent raptor education and rehabilitation facility.
The Rocky Mountain Raptor Program is a 501(c)(3) non-profit wildlife conservation organization based in Fort Collins, Colorado that rescues, rehabilitates and releases injured birds of prey—including eagles, hawks, falcons and owls—and, through its comprehensive Environmental Education program, teaches the importance of preserving wildlife and wild places for future generations. RMRP has developed a national reputation for the treatment of raptor illness and injuries, cage design, volunteer management, community involvement, and youth development. Raptor patients receive fracture repair, wound care, fluids to combat dehydration, nutritious food, and regular medical attention to promote healing. Raptors that are permanently injured and therefore non-releasable may become an Educational Ambassador. These raptors are the cornerstone of our Environmental Education program, which makes more than 200 presentations each year throughout the region, teaching children and adults about the importance of protecting wildlife and wild places. The program's environmental education program, particularly in the K-12 sector, has developed an excellent reputation throughout Colorado. RMRP reaches more than 15,000 schoolchildren annually. Numerous outreach exhibits throughout the state reach hundreds of thousands of people annually. Rocky Mountain Raptor Program currently averages about one admission and several injured raptor calls each day, and 77% of treatable raptors are released.
The Juneau Raptor Center (JRC) was a raptor rehabilitation center in Juneau in the U.S. state of Alaska. Founded in 1987 and located in the Tongass National Forest, its mission was the rehabilitation of sick and injured eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, ravens, hummingbirds and other avian wildlife brought in from Juneau and Southeast Alaska. The JRC was licensed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to handle eagles and migratory birds, and was governed in part by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
The Southern Vermont Natural History Museum is a natural history museum, at the Hogback Mountain Scenic Overlook on Route 9 in West Marlboro, Vermont. The museum is surrounded by the Hogback Mountain Conservation Area, over 600 acres of protected forest land, with views of three states. The Museum was established in 1996 around the Luman Ranger Nelson Natural History Collection, one of the largest collections of native birds and mammals in the northeast, with 250 species represented.
