Through a process called imping, damaged feathers are replaced and birds take flight

By Administrative and Database Assistant Heather Patrice Brown

Birds with damaged feathers sometimes need a little extra help before they can be released back to the wild.  Feathers are made of keratin, the same substance as your hair, but once all the way out, feathers stop growing and lose their blood supply. Damage to feathers is permanent until the body replaces them according to a predetermined timetable (molting) which can be as long as a year. Feathers that are molted are regrown right away, but feathers that are broken are not replaced until the broken feather is molted. While molting patterns vary depending on the species, most birds will molt only a few flight feathers at a time in order to retain their ability to fly.  Damage or loss of more than a few flight or tail feathers can render a bird flightless.

Thankfully, there is a way these birds can be helped to heal without having to wait through an entire molting cycle.  The process is called “Imping.”  Imping has been compared to getting hair extensions.

Donor feathers are collected from birds of the same species, approximate size, and age of the recipient bird.  The donor birds are animals that did not survive their injuries.  The feathers are harvested from the same location on the donor as the injured feathers on the recipient bird.

The donor feathers are prepared by removing the tips of the feathers and placing small dowels inside the donor feather shaft to create a bridge between the new feather and the recipient.  A portion of the dowel is left protruding from the donor feather to allow it to attach to the recipient. The feathers are numbered so they will be attached to the recipient bird in the correct order.

Once the donor feathers are prepared, the bird being imped is anesthetized.  Although this procedure is painless, it can still be stressful for the bird and it’s important for the bird to remain still during the process so it doesn’t end up with crooked feathers.  The broken feathers are cut off with a red-hot scalpel in order to not compress the shaft.

The feather shafts on the recipient are hollowed out and the dowels are whittled down to make sure they fit in the shafts perfectly.  The veterinary team is careful to keep the feathers in the correct order.

Once all the dowels are the correct size, they are glued into the donor feathers.  Then, one by one, the dowels and the donor feathers are glued into the feather shafts of the recipient.  Any excess epoxy is carefully removed so as not to glue the feathers together.  The feathers are properly layered and angled before the glue sets.

When the bird comes out of anesthesia, the useless, broken flight feathers are now replaced with complete feathers and like magic, the bird can fly once again.  The imped feathers are only temporary and will molt just like regular feathers in the next molting cycle.  By then, the bird will be soaring once again in the wild, and its time at the California Wildlife Center will be just a memory.