Pickford bald eagle beats West Nile virus

[Staff]

Pickford bald eagle beats West Nile virus
March 26, 2009
2-year-old bird captured in 2002 was nursed back to health and released to the wild.
Kenn Filkins / Associated Press

Pickford bald eagle beats West Nile virus | detnews.com | The Detroit News
excerpts from above:

PICKFORD -- A young bald eagle, suffering from West Nile virus, was captured in August 2002 from the parking lot of a car dealership in Pickford.

With a lot of help, the nearly dead eagle survived, learned to fly again, was released and flew off to make history.

"This was amazing because ... at that point, all the statistics told us that a bird recovered from WNV would never reproduce," Gibson said. "Your little lady Patty and our hard-working staff at REGI showed the world that not only could she survive the WNV virus but could indeed mate and produce offspring. She did this all in the spring of her fourth year, which is very early for bald eagles to mate. Apparently, Patty was a very special bird even to another male eagle.