Written by: Marielys Gutierrez, PHSS Intern

A Cooper’s Hawk is a medium-sized hawk native to North America and found in South Florida. Adults are a bluish-grey color with warm reddish bars on the underparts of their body and thick dark bands on the tail. On June 24th, 2021, a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk (patient 21-1237) was brought in with singed and burnt feathers on the wings and tail. Its face was swollen, and the eyes were closed shut. The mean body temperature of a Cooper’s Hawk just after flight is 104.3 F (Custer, Feierabend, & Hoffman, 1990). At the time of intake, the body temperature of patient 1237 was 107.5 F. The initial weight of the patient was 273 kg. The suspected cause for the burns and reason for intake was electrocution or methane burn.

Patient 1237 had an extensive number of injuries and the treatment plan had to cover lowering the body temperature, treating damaged feathers and eyes, pain management, treating inflammation and possible infections. After intake, patient 1237 was placed inside a large box with ice packs, and its body temperature lowered to 104 F. Initial treatments included flushing the eyes, and oral administration of meloxicam and tramadol. Meloxicam is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug used to relieve inflammation and pain and tramadol is an opioid used to treat more severe pain. After flushing the eyes, the corneas appeared intact, but bruising was present. The eyes were kept lubricated and tobramycin eye drops were administered.

The initial care of patient 1237 focused on pain management and temperature control and the continual care shifted towards treating any possible infections, maintaining body weight, and plan towards the care of the skin and feathers. An x-ray was performed and revealed no significant findings. Meloxicam, tramadol, tobramycin, eye lube, and subcutaneous fluids continued to be administered twice a day. Spikes in temperature continued to be observed and it was believed the patient might have been fighting an infection. Sulfatrim, an antibiotic used to treat a variety of bacterial infections (such as ear, urine, respiratory, intestinal infections, etc.), was introduced orally to the patient twice a day. The current weight of the patient is at 262 kg. Due to the patient not being able to maintain its body weight, the staff started alternating between force-feeding the patient mice and tube feeding a liquid prescription diet. After five days in care, the patient’s eyes opened up and on July 1st, sloughing (shedding) of skin on legs was observed.

Cooper’s Hawk 1237 remains under the care of Pelican Harbor Seabird Station until it is fit for release. Throughout the care of the patient, I began to read articles about raptor-related burns and learned that methane burns result in similar burns found on the Cooper’s Hawk in our care. Landfills use a methane burner to convert methane into water and carbon dioxide. The flames shoot out of an exhaust pipe and are colorless. Raptors like to perch on the methane burners to inspect for prey. When a raptor flies into the flames, although they may survive the immediate injuries, most eventually starve due to losing their ability to hunt and fly (Deines, 2020). A creative solution, found by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent James Dowd, has been to add tops to the methane exhaust pipes with sharp points to deter birds from perching on them (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region, 2013). Power line electrocution is another leading cause of raptor mortality. Diagnosis is made according to the burns of the feathers and skin. Electrocution wounds are different in the way that they have a presence of an entrance and exit wound, and include skin lacerations, subcutaneous burns, bruising, vascular rupture, etc. (Kagan, 2016). Usually, landfills are in secluded areas, so it is unknown how many birds suffer a similar fate. The Cooper’s Hawk in our care was found in a neighborhood, leading the team at Pelican Harbor to suspect electrocution to be the probable cause of the injuries. Thanks to the work done at Pelican Harbor many of these birds are given a fighting chance, and we have hope that our Cooper’s Hawk will be able to heal all its wounds and molt the injured feathers with time.