Bald Eagle Buddy! at Wild Birds Unlimited in Virginia Beach

Buddy and his trainer/handler Raina Krasner were at Wild Birds Unlimited in Virginia Beach today! (Raina is the Outreach Coordinator at the Wildlife Center of Virginia. Buddy is a non-releasable Bald Eagle who serves as a Wildlife Ambassador. You can read about Buddy's training in 2013 with Raina and Dr Dave McRuer.) I took some video today, which I am working on processing. It will take at least a few days. Just the conversion from HD to WMV files takes a while... Plus I had to get my computer working with the HD files again. I lost that ability when I had my operating system reloaded after getting a virus. But I'm back in business now and will get the Buddy video (and some other video) posted as soon as I can.

Here are some pictures from his visit today.

Buddy!

Buddy with his handler, Raina:

Raina uses forceps to give Buddy food. She uses the forceps to reach into the pack that she wears at her waist, grabs a piece of food, then brings it up to Buddy's mouth. The food always comes to Buddy from that downward direction. As a result, Buddy spends a lot of time looking at his feet, waiting for food to magically appear!

Buddy had something to say at one point:

All of these pictures are from after the presentation, when people were allowed to stand 'near' Buddy and have their picture taken. One person stood too close and you can see the feathers on the top of his head are sticking up a little, much like a dog that raises its hackles:

And then he gave the person the 'eagle eye' full on, letting them know to back-off! I like this picture because you can see the coloring on the back of his head:

I'm thinking about changing my favicon to the picture below. What do you think? I'm not sure if there is enough of a color difference with his head against that tan background... I could maybe manipulate the background...

This picture really shows how much Buddy's beak curves to his left.

Raina and Buddy are having a conversation here:

Raina and Buddy:

I've got to give some props to Wild Birds Unlimited for hosting this event. This shop is located on the southside and I live on the peninsula, so I'd never been there before. This is a great shop! They had a lot of great products for enjoying wild birds in your yard. I made some purchases! I'm going to have to shop with them again. They also did a great job hosting the event!