Neighbors and an animal rescue organization helped rescue a bald eagle that was injured and unable to fly found near homes in Antioch this week.
Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation said Friday that they were contacted by a couple of different neighbors earlier in the week reporting an injured bald eagle near their properties in Antioch.
It was nightfall at the time and the bird disappeared into a heavily wooded area.
One of the homeowners searched extensively but was unable to locate it.
“Hoping that it would survive the night, we asked them to look for it the next morning and assured them that we would come if they located it,” Flint Creek Wildlife said.
The organization is a licensed non-profit wildlife rehabilitation center based in Barrington that cares for injured and orphaned wildlife.
One of the neighbors found the eagle in the woods the next morning.
Flint Creek Wildlife arrived an hour later and learned the eagle had briefly walked around the lake and then returned to the more protected wooded area.
The wooded area was a peninsula and three neighbors stood on various shorelines to keep the eagle from going back onto the lake.
The eagle kept running under thick brush and fallen trees despite having a broken wing.
Flint Creek Wildlife said one of their workers crawled under some fallen limbs and was able to grab the eagle.
The eagle was brought to the organization’s facility in Barrington and it was determined that it had an open-wing fracture at the metacarpus.
The bird is receiving medical care including pain meds, anti-inflammatories and antibiotics. The wing is set and “hopefully” the eagle will make a full recovery, Flint Creek Wildlife said.
“Our sincere thanks to Paul and Linda and their neighbor Rikki!” the organization said.