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Sonny, Bald Eagle
 Updated 12/10/2024 2:35:57 PM 

Sonny, the Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Bald Eagles are part of the Accipitridae family in the order Falconiformes. Click here to learn more...

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Sonny Placed on our Eagle Exhibition permit, Sonny the Bald Eagle joined the teaching team in 2011. Retrieved by our friend Rob Domenech, the bird was standing on a riverbank at Quinn's Hot Springs for a few days. Rob actually fished him out of the water with a net when he jumped into the river. He was a very mellow bird, down in condition and missing a wing tip. Age was at least 4 or 5 years old at the time with that white plumage and yellow beak and eye. He has his own perch on which I install a nice Eastern Fox Squirrel (non-native and trapped) or chicken. We also go through quite a bit of donated game meat - domestic, plus elk, deer, moose, bear and even a bighorn sheep. Sonny shares the 30' x 40' enclosure with Nigel the Golden Eagle, not closely related, so it is fun to see the differences between the species. And they get along, mostly.

In 2019 I noticed a growth on the end off that right wingtip that kept getting larger, so a trip to Missoula Veterinary Clinic. Thanks Dr. Scott Bovard for the brilliant surgery and right as rain now, feathers growing back and would never know.

Sonny is yet another jazz bird, named for all of the jazz musicians by that name that you can think of, like Rollins, Stitt, Clarke, and another jazz devotee from KCSM radio in San Mateo, CA - Sonny Buxton.

  • Date Acquired: 6/26/2011
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