Adam, a 25 year old Bald Eagle has been a resident of the Birds of Prey Foundation since 2005. He serves as one of the sites bird ambassadors and is brought along to a number of educational programs and events to help inform the public about local raptor species.
In 1985 a bald eagle was shot and suffered a fracture to his wing. The wing never properly healed, and he never flew again. He was only one-year-old at the time.
For twenty years he lived at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, and in 2005, the Birds of Prey Foundation took him in. Adam has been there ever since.
One of the 22 flight enclosures found at the Birds of Prey Foundation. This particular one is the Golden Eagle enclosure.
For the past 40 years, the Birds of Prey Foundation has served as one of the largest raptor rehabilitation centers in the state. Over 17,000 birds have been admitted to the facility.
Lutz, along with the rest of the Bird of Prey staff, works tirelessly to rehabilitate each bird with as little human contact as possible.
"Many of these birds have already been exposed to humans enough," said Lutz. "Our goal is to get them back in the wild, not back in the enclosures."
The intensive care unit is the first step for rehabilitation. Each raptor undergoes a thorough health check, that may include x-rays, blood work, or a time in the incubator, depending on the injury and how extensive it may be.
Once the raptor is strong enough, it is moved to one of the many flight enclosures. Here the individual works up its strength by jumping from perch to perch, climbing ladders, or even flying within the enclosure, and is where it learns to resocialize with other raptors.
Unfortunately, not all raptors can be fully rehabilitated as their injuries may have caused permanent damage making it impossible to release them back into the wild according to Lutz. That's where the bird ambassador program comes in.
"Knowing that this bird will never truly be wild again is an extremely difficult decision, but we believe it's for the greater good," said Lutz.
Bird ambassadors help spread the mission of conservation as they act as direct examples of how humans, directly and indirectly, influence the status of raptor species.
A volunteer for Birds of Prey handles Adam, a bald eagle that has been with Birds of Prey since 2005.
Loene, a volunteer for Birds of Prey, handles Kaya, a red-tailed hawk, that at a raptor celebration in Fort Collins in January. Kaya has been with Birds of Prey since 2011 when she collided with a truck and suffered permanent damage.
The majority of birds brought in to the foundation are from the more urban, metro areas of the state according to Lutz, and Denver continues to be the location where most injuries take place.
As raptors become more attuned to life in the city, it is inevitable that they will encounter humans. Birds have collided with cars, flown into windows, been shot, and even poisoned.
“Most of their injury is attributed to human error or influence,” said Lutz.
While Birds of Prey has seen its fair share of grassland specialist raptors, for the past decade the majority of raptors admitted are urban specialists, and unsurprisingly, the top three admitted species to date are the American kestrel, great-horned owl, and red-tailed hawk. Although the number of kestrels coming into the foundation has declined in recent years, they still are among the most commonly injured raptors.
In 2019, Birds of Prey admitted 69 American kestrel, 135 great-horned owls, and 151 red-tailed hawks and the total count for all injured raptors was 676, the highest end of year count to date. As urban environments continue to grow, so will the number of injured raptors warned Birds of Prey.
Collisions with cars and habitat loss were behind most injuries last year according to Lutz. However, her team was alarmed at the number of admitted birds admitted shot down by pellet guns.
"We experienced a horrifying amount of shot birds last year," said Lutz. "It was the largest amount we had ever seen."
So much so that this dramatic increase in shot birds sparked a policy change within Birds of Prey, and all admitted birds are now required to undergo a mandatory x-ray.
At the start of this year, a total of 16 new birds were admitted, four of which had been shot.
It can take weeks, even months to rehabilitate a bird shot down by a pellet gun, and the longer a bird needs to remain in rehabilitation, the more is costs on both a financial and emotional level. The bird may suffer from broken bones and trauma, either from the pellet or the fall to the ground caused by the shot itself. Their wounds may lead to infections, especially if the pellet is really lodged into the bird as these pellets contain lead that can leach toxins into their bloodstream.
No one knows for sure the reason behind these bird shootings, however, it may be a result of people trying to scare raptors off their property and away from pets according to Desirae Kovacich, the ICU manager for Birds of Prey.
"Birds of prey just can't catch a break," said Jones.
It is illegal to shoot down birds of prey on both a state and federal level under the Migratory Bird Act. Passed in 1918, the law protects almost all native birds are protected from hunting and poaching as well as puts pressure on industrial companies to put measures in place the prevent bird deaths. Eagles, hawks, and owls were added to the list of protected birds in 1972.
But some of these protections may disappear under the Trump administration. Under the new law, criminal penalties placed on companies that failed to prevent foreseeable bird deaths would be abolished, and only the penalties of intentional killing of birds would remain. The administration is set to finalize its proposal that will change key elements of the Migratory Bird Act in the coming weeks.
If protections on birds continue to loosen then the future of all birds, no matter if they are grassland specialists or urban adapted, will suffer according to Jones.
"We can't let that happen," said Jones.
The number of great horned owls admitted to Birds of Prey has been on a dramatic rise over the years.