A young red-tailed hawk was released back into the wild in Washington earlier this week, following a short rehab assignment in Iowa City. The bird had suffered injuries consistent with a window strike, and was showing signs of head trauma. 

The hawk was brought to the RARE Group, a non-profit raptor rehabilitation organization in Iowa City by Burlington Animal Control. RARE stands for Raptor Advocacy, Rehabilitation and Education. 

Sonja Hadenfeldt, coordinator of the RARE Group, says they were lucky to receive the bird during the migratory season, allowing them to release it in an area other than where it was found. If it was found in May or June, Hadenfeldt says that the bird would have needed to be returned to Burlington as it may have had a nest and mate already in that area.

After the hawk’s condition rapidly improved, Hadenfeldt says the plan was to give the bird some time in the organization’s flight cage for more rehabilitation work. However, she says the hawk was more than ready to go, “Basically, he was in that box and you could just hear him trying to escape that box, and it’s like, oh, he does not need to go to our flight cage, he just needs to go.”

Hadenfeldt says one of her volunteers also volunteers at PAWS & More Animal Shelter in Washington, and offered to take the red-tailed hawk into Washington County where he was successfully released back into the wild. PAWS & More and the RARE Group are frequent collaborators, with the former frequently assisting with medical donations and other items.

The RARE Group, founded in 2015, also works with eagles, owls, and other birds of prey. Other than Hadenfeldt, the group is made up of volunteers that help with rehabilitation and education programs. The organization works with around 150 birds per year.