Feather Imping
Feather Imping
This is a Red Tailed Hawk, not an owl, but I had never heard of this process before. It sounds simple (but tedious if it's a lot of feathers) and effective. Very interesting!
From Center for Wildlife
Recently, our Wildlife Medical Clinic team performed an incredible procedure called "imping" (short for implantation) on a Red-tailed Hawk patient in our care. This process is the replacement of damaged feathers from a donor of the same species.
This red-tailed hawk, number 23-1843, came to us just over a month ago after being found on the ground. He was showing signs of dehydration and emaciation upon arrival and our team got to work providing supportive care. While grounded, this hawk did a significant amount of damage to his primary tail feathers. The decision was made to utilize feathers from a donor hawk that passed away in our care to replace 1843s damaged primary feathers. Our team implanted the new feathers in the feather shafts which will give 1843 the ability to fly. As new feathers grow in, these replacement feathers will simply drop and be replaced themselves!
This procedure is just one of many that our wildlife specialists utilize to help ensure an animal's survival and shows the dedication and expertise they possess! Many thanks to the rescuers and clinic staff that have enabled 1843 to make it to this point and stay tuned for more updates.
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Damaged feathers
Donor feathers
Here's a quick Nat Geo article talking a bit about the process. It sounds like they graft a good shaft onto the base of the feather coming out of the follicle. It hopefully holds up until the bird molts and gets new feathers.
ETA: Here's an owl specific link. Same info pretty much, but not photos and some video.
I've been a falconer for a while and imping is a PITA. I guess it's easier when the bird is anesthetized though. Something they didn't talk about is that you need material to go inside the shafts to hold them both together, I wonder what was used. This question is important because the material inside the feather flexes differently and it creates a weak point that can break. IMO I would have left the feathers as is, they didn't even look that bads.
Edit, nvm, the shafts look split. Ya, it needed replacement. I still wonder what they used though. There are carbon fiber plugs available but I've used smaller feathers to go in between.
It's awesome to have someone with some experience!
The GHO article I added quick this morning says they used wood. I had to given much thought to a plug used. I had assumed from the first 2 articles not mentioning anything that they were slipped together like 2 soda straws and held with the epoxy.
I was only thinking about the flexing being at the follicle, but not the whole feather bending under air resistance.
This article mentions some historic and also modern materials used to splice the feathers.
You can't really bend them together like a straw, they are too stiff and even if you could it would almost certainly crack at the bend. Wood is fine if it's tapered off at the ends, it might just be a little heavy and more noticeable for the bird.
Ya, how birds use feathers to fly is very complex. Comparing an aircraft wing to a birds wing is kind of like one of those can grabbers to a persons hand. They can both grasp, but the hand can do much much more. There can also be a huge difference between different birds feathers too in their flexibility, shape, and structure. A peregrine's flight feathers will be much stiffer because of their high speeds than an American kestrels who climb into holes and muck about, rubbing their feathers on everything for example.