Injured West Mifflin bald eagle released after getting new feathers
SAEGERTOWN, Pa. (KDKA) - A young bald eagle that was injured when she fell out of her nest earlier this summer is soaring once more.
Back in June, Rosie the Riveter took a tumble from her nest near the U.S. Steel plant in West Mifflin. She was spotted on the live webcam and rescuers went out to help her.
At the Tamarack Wildlife Center, she was found to be missing all her primary flight feathers on one wing. The damaged feathers were replaced with donor flight feathers through a process called "imping."
Woohoo! Rosie the Riveter Bald Eagle from the U. S. Steel nest is flying in open skies. Taking flight, she circled...
Posted by Tamarack Wildlife Center on Thursday, October 20, 2022
After more than three months of rehab, all the hard work paid off for Rosie.
On Thursday, the wildlife center brought Rosie to restricted state game lands near Pymatuning Lake and released her for her first-ever flight in open skies.
The wildlife center says she circled over them three times then perched in a stand of trees. They say they picked that land because it has other eagles of all ages who congregate there through the winter and they expect Rosie will learn survival skills from them.
One of the men who released her was Don German from U.S. Steel. He's the one who spotted her fall from the nest and went out to rescue her.
"Our hearts are flying with her," the wildlife center wrote on Facebook.