OC Bird of Prey Center hopes to add large enclosure to give more raptors flight

A flight cage where injured raptors can spread their wings and rebuild their flying muscles is key to their recovery.

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While the Orange County Bird of Prey Center takes in raptors of all sizes, it has had to send out larger birds for flight rehabilitation because its on-site cage is just 50 feet long.

For example, an emaciated year-old golden eagle with a hairline fracture in her wing found as a fledgling at the side of the road and nursed back to health had to be outsourced to a falconer who began working with her in December to retrain her to fly. The bird is back now at the center for more treatment but will return to the falconer once ready to resume flight.

The flight and hunting training takes about 18 to 24 months.

The only way the center can continue to rehabilitate large injured and sick raptors like the golden and bald eagles, peregrine falcons, osprey and turkey vultures it takes in is to have a larger, 60-by-40-foot flight cage that is circular, said Dan Goldbacher, executive director of the center, which is located on about 2 acres in Rancho Santa Margarita bordering the Cleveland National Forest. The land is leased from OC Parks.

“Regulations have adjusted, and that’s the only way we can continue that rehabilitation,” he said. “So, it’s vital for us to have, to reach all of the species here in Orange County.”

The cage will cost $300,000 and the Bird of Prey Center has begun fundraising, needing to raise about $80,000 more to start construction.

The new cage will be situated next to the smaller, linear flight cage, where more than 40 raptors are currently recovering from illness or injury. The goal is to begin grading in about three months, Goldbacher said.

The larger cage will allow the raptors – raptors are birds that have strong grasping feet, hooked upper beaks and binocular vision – to fly in continuous circles, bank and turn, building the stamina they need. A golden eagle female, for example, can soar for five hours, said Harmonie Wooley, who heads up the animal care at the center.

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To help with fundraising for the new flight cage — and a vision for an amphitheater — the center has been hosting Raptor Eco-Trek tours, where the community can have an up-close encounter with an ambassador bird — once-injured raptors that can no longer live in the wild and are trained for visits to schools and public events — and then ride through the back county of Limestone Canyon in a four-wheel-drive vehicle to observe the raptors in their habitat. The next tour is on Sunday, June 14; two others are planned for later this year on Sept. 20 and Dec. 13.

The trips also come with a unique full-circle opportunity, Goldbacher said, in which someone can help release a rehabilitated bird into the wild. Most of the Bird of Prey Center’s patients are found in Orange County and stay for as short a time as possible.

“This helps us get people out into the wild, see the birds in the wild, and explore the land that needs to be saved to be able to protect these birds,” Goldbacher said. “To see these birds up close is a huge part of what we do.”

“Whenever somebody cares about something, they’re going to be more interested in protecting it,”  he added. “Whether that’s a raptor or the land that they’re on or the ocean, the more somebody cares about their natural environment, the more they’re willing to protect it.”

For more information, go to ocbpc.org. The bird ambassadors also visit schools and other places as part of funding for the center’s day-to-day operations.

Caring for birds isn’t cheap. The raptors consume about 3,000 to 5,000 dead, frozen mice and chicks in three weeks. It costs about $1,000 to rehabilitate each bird, Goldbacher added.

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