Wildlife center unveils Shelby the bald eagle

December 16, 2018 4:26 PM

Sydney Cromwell

Shelby the bald eagle drew gasps from the crowd at the Alabama Wildlife Center on Saturday as she took her first public flight at her brand new home.

The AWC held a ribbon-cutting on Dec. 15 for its new enclosure, called a mew, and the newest resident of the center, located inside Oak Mountain State Park.

The bald eagle is a two-year-old female who was given to the AWC after she was struck by a car, causing a partial loss of sight. She weighs around 14 pounds, AWC Executive Director Doug Adair said. The AWC has been working toward getting a bald eagle for about two years, as the process requires extensive training and approval from the federal government.

Adair said the eagle was named Shelby to honor the cooperation on every level in the county to get the mew built and ready for the bird. The mew also houses the center's Eurasian eagle-owl, also a rescued bird, and it was built with help from a number of sponsors, including Shelby County, the state parks department, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, Alabama Power Foundation, EBSCO and the Mike and Gillian Goodrich Foundation.

The bald eagle will not develop the distinctive white head feathers until around age 5, and Adair said it will be exciting for visitors to watch her grow and develop those feathers. She is also not fully glove-trained, so she only made a brief appearance for the crowd before being released into her enclosure.

Adair said the goal is to someday have two glove-trained eagles, so the center can take one to schools and organizations around the state as an education bird, while the other remains at the center for visitors to enjoy.

The AWC rehabilitates around 2,000 birds a year, from songbirds and water birds to hawks and owls. It also has a number of educational birds of prey, which are trained to be shown to crowds as part of educational programs.