From Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center of Roanoke

Meet RSHA 26-2599, the Red-shouldered Hawk! This patient lies at the center of a recently-solved MYSTERY at our wildlife hospital.

Miss RSHA 26-2599 is a mature adult hawk who was found grounded in a driveway about a mile from our facility. On arrival, we checked for the usual suspects: Broken bones, lead toxicity, eye issues, head trauma, emaciation, bruising from any kind of collision or altercation. ALL were within normal limits (except for one, but we'll get there).

The diagnosis: At over 910g in weight, she was too darn fat to fly! We couldn't even palpate her keel due to the heavy layer of fat covering it.

It is RARE for wild animals to become obese without human intervention, so how could this happen? Was she a lost falconry bird? Someone was feeding her? Was she an escaped (illegally-kept) captive hawk?

After ruling these out, we asked the finder if any of her neighbors had free-ranging chickens she could be eating.

The finder did some asking around, and called us back to confirm a couple of weeks later: YES! Her neighbors' free- roaming chickens were disappearing at an alarming rate over the last few weeks.

Our mystery was very likely solved! This queen was picking off the buffet of easy prey set out before her, eating her fill, and then snoozing in the trees nearby until she was ready to eat again. The chickens were let out in the morning, she ate another, and repeat.

After weeks of repeating this feasting and sleeping, it's no wonder she got too fat to fly!

This story is kinda funny (unless you're the chickens getting eaten), but there is a sobering reality: This is a man-made issue, and this could have had a sadder ending if she had been found by a larger predator instead of the finder. Without flight, she is extremely vulnerable.

Moral of the story: Don't feed wildlife... Directly OR indirectly. Also, covered runs are the way to go for chicken keeping!