Mud-caked eagle recovering at Atlantic Wildlife Institute

Officials at the Atlantic Wildlife Institute have been trying to figure out what happened to a juvenile bald eagle found caked in mud and unable to fly in the Memramcook area earlier this month.

The eagle, estimated to be two or three years old, is now free of the mud and moving its wings again, after staff at the institute used a hose to shower it down.

But it did sustain an eye injury and that may affect its chances of being released back into the wild, said Pam Novak, the Cookville-based institute's executive director.

"He must have had some kind of impact injury … there is a slight fracture in the orbital bone above the eye, and the eye is not responding very well, so that can be difficult for an eagle in the wild," she said.

"The next stage, since he is recovering well from the whole ordeal, is to start flying him in our aviary to see if he can adapt and how his movement is going to be."

Birds of prey rely heavily on their vision to fly and hunt and ultimately survive, said Novak.

"Without one eye to do that it'll be difficult for that bird to hunt unless he can adapt properly," she said.

The 31-metre-long flight aviary will help officials at the institute monitor the bird's recovery.

"We'll see if he can move around, adjust to different sizes of openings for prey, we can even put in some fish if need be to see if he's able to hunt properly," Novak said.

Logistics is the only thing standing in the way of that next step. The wildlife institute is currently caring for 22 birds of prey, taking up over 390 square metres of space.