Waynesboro eagle will never fly free

A bald eagle whose birth and afflicted beak sent people flocking to the Internet to follow his plight is staying put in Waynesboro where he has emerged as a symbol of his suddenly resurgent species.

Doctors at the Wildlife Center of Virginia removed a lesion from the bird’s beak last year. The move saved the eagle, but lingering damage to his beak prevents him from cutting food and surviving in the wild, center President Ed Clark said Monday. So the center has become home.
And the bird known to some as Buddy has a new role: eagle ambassador.
“The eagle will remain in captivity for the rest of its life,” perhaps to become part of the center’s education program or to strut his stuff in an exhibit, Clark said
The bird was hatched in April 2008 at the Norfolk Botanical Garden and later was bitten on the bridge of its nose by a mosquito carrying an avian pox. The ailing eagle was brought to the Wildlife Center the following month.
“It was a viral lesion. Through long and expensive treatment, the growth was removed and the eagle overcame the infection,” Clark said.

But the infection damaged the bird’s beak and the growth plate on its left side
Dave McRuer, director of veterinary medicine at the Wildlife Center, said the beak remains misaligned despite attempts to straighten it.
The story of the eagle gained worldwide attention after a Web cam at the Norfolk Botanical Garden captured the bird’s birth and early life.
“The Web cam was viewed by 150,000 people and some people had computer models dedicated to it,” Clark said.
Clark said Buddy’s survival represents the resurgence of bald eagles in Virginia.
Eagles once dropped in number to less than 100, but today there are hundreds of bald eagle nests in the commonwealth and thousands of the once-endangered species, Clark said.

“We took our national symbol and drove it to the brink of extinction,” he said. “Now, more and more chicks are being hatched. It’s very encouraging. It’s an example of things that come from the Endangered Species Act.
The recovered eagle will now spread its majestic wings in a 16-by-30 foot cage.
And he can look forward to a long life.
“We’ve had eagles in here almost 30 years old,” Clark said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.