WOODBURY, MN (WNN) – Case number 25-337 – otherwise known as the eagle that was found seriously injured in mid-May on Woodbury Drive – will need at least another month to fully recover, according to the medical director of the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center. The eagle has become a bit of a social media sensation in a community with a lot of dedicated eagle watchers.
“At this point in time, I would consider the eagle’s prognosis fair to good,” said veterinarian Dr. Dana Franzen-Klein, head of the Raptor Center, where the bird underwent surgery following his rescue May 17. “This bird had very severe traumatic injuries to the internal organs. He has made significant improvements over time. At this point, we anticipate he will need another 10-14 days of rest and healing, but we always do what the bird needs to have the best chance of success and we cannot always predict that ahead of time,” Franzen-Klein said.
According to an earlier news release from the center, besides internal trauma, the eagle was suffering from tissue swelling in the left shoulder and hip, and bruising around the right eye. He received intensive critical care treatments, including oxygen therapy.
After his rest and healing is complete, he will also need a few weeks to regain strength and physical condition prior to release, Franzen-Klein said. “So at least one month more in care, if not longer, is my estimate, at this point in time.”
After passersby reported the bird standing in the roadway but unable to move, Woodbury Police Officer Andrew Mattson collected the bird and took him to the Raptor Center for care and rehabilitation. Word of the bird’s plight and rescue quickly spread on Woodbury residents’ social media feeds, including Woodbury MN- Neighbors, as well as other sites, such as KSTP.com, MSN and YouTube. “He needs to get home to his wife and babies,” said one post on Woodbury MN-Neighbors.
Assuming he makes a full recovery, 25-337 will likely be released somewhere near where he was found, but the exact location and timing will not be disclosed to protect the bird, Franzen-Klein said.
“For this eagle, because there are reports he may be part of an active nest site in the area… we will likely find a safe location close to where he was found to release him,” she said. “The release will not be open to the public in order to decrease the stress for the bird and keep the bird safe. Additionally, as soon as this bird is ready for release we will want to get him back out in the wild as soon as possible, which does not give us time to coordinate a public event that would be safe for the wild bird and the people who would want to attend.”
However, she said the Raptor Center shares release stories through its various media channels, “so that we can keep everyone up to date.”
Though the bird doesn’t have an official name, other than his case number from the Raptor Center, one family on the Woodbury MN – Neighbors Facebook group named him “Majesty.” Pauline Kish, who monitors the group, said she knows of one nesting eagle family in the Woodbury area that has been around for about five years and some of the children in the area have given names to the family members.
“We do not name our wildlife patients, but they are each assigned a unique case number that we use to track their journey through our hospital,” Franzen-Klein said. “This bird’s case number is 25-337: The 25 is the last two digits of the year, 2025, and the second number, 337, means he was the 337th bird we admitted that year.”
Asked whether injured eagles were becoming more common as urban-suburban areas expand into their usual ranges and the birds adapt to humans, Franzen-Klein said she did not have the data to readily answer, but the center does collect this type of data to be able to answer such questions for research. “It takes time to process and analyze the data to be able to accurately answer these questions,” she said. The center is very busy this time of year, she noted.
