Stewie

Stewie was injured from being hit by a car, a very common injury in raptors.  Raptors frequently hunt their prey in the short grass by busy roads.  They do this for a few reasons:  The grass is mowed short which makes it easy to find their prey; the prey often come there to eat things that people have thrown from their vehicles; and, the raptors do eat fresh road kill.  Stewie was found along Highway 24 between Fort Wayne and Roanoke, IN.  He has an elbow injury which leaves him flightless, so he was added to our education permit in 2009.  Stewie is often one of the more vocal of our education birds. Red-shouldered hawks are listed as a species of concern in Indiana.  Their population is not low enough to be considered endangered in the state, but low enough to be monitored.