Osprey recovering at CROW after being rescued from Bokeelia tree

SANIBEL, Fla.- An osprey that was stuck, hanging upside down in a tree in Bokeelia is now recovering at the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW).

The bird was rescued from a tree it had been stuck in for more than 24 hours by an employee with Genesis Tree Service.

Doctors tell WINK News they believe it’s a young female. They planned to treat her Thursday but said she was so traumatized, the bird had to be sedated for the night.

The osprey’s foot was tangled in some kind of wire and badly injured.

“She does have a lot of soft tissue swelling along that right leg, I would assume that’s the leg she’s been dangling by, she also has a lot of swelling of several of her toes as well,” said Brittany Stevens, a veterinary intern at CROW.

The staff at CROW say she also has bruised wings and a heart murmur, which could have been caused by stress and dehydration.

“Because of all these things that are going on with her, I decided that I just wanted to stabilize her for right now, so she got fluids under her skin to help rehydrate her, she got some doses of pain medication,” said Stevens. “Our plan for her is tomorrow we’ll actually, if she’s stable enough, we’ll actually anesthetize her and get good x-rays of her body to make sure everything’s straight.”

CROW tells WINK News they try to respond to every call they get, but in this case they didn’t have the necessary equipment to reach the bird at the top of that tree. They commend neighbors for calling a tree service to rescue the bird.