World Bird Sanctuary
The World Bird Sanctuary is heartbroken to share the passing of Murphy, our 33-year-old bald eagle and extraordinary foster dad. Murphy was found deceased in his aviary the early morning of Saturday March 15th as we checked on our animals after storms and tornadoes came through the St. Louis area the night before.
Our veterinarian performed a full necropsy which showed that Murphy had sustained some form of trauma to his head. We are unable to determine if Murphy was spooked by something and hit his head while jumping off a perch or if wind and precipitation played a part in the injury. While Murphy experienced countless storms throughout the years with us without issue, this storm may have contributed to his passing.
His three aviary mates are all in good health, and his aviary as a whole did not sustain any damage. All of our birds in outdoor aviaries have access to shelters to protect themselves from storms and other weather. We do have contingency plans for different types of environmental situations, but this particular storm did not require any bird evacuations as no tornadoes approached WBS. While we do everything that we can to keep our birds safe, accidents outside of our control can happen.
As we mourn this tragic loss, we are very thankful that his 33 year life far surpassed the typical lifespan of 20-25 years for Bald Eagles. His resilience, spirit, and dedication as a foster dad touched the hearts of millions of people throughout the world, leaving an especially profound impact on those fortunate enough to have worked with him. While Murphy has delighted guests along Avian Avenue for years with his distinct vocalizations and charismatic personality, it wasn't until 2023 when he decided to incubate a rock that he gained an international following. Murphy's transition from rock incubating to rockstar foster dad of an injured eaglet brought daily joy to thousands as we watched their journey together.
As Murphy's eaglet grew so did our love of him. Their journey together taught thousands about eagle growth and development, the bonds between eagle parents and their young, and the critical work that goes into wildlife rehabilitation. Murphy's eaglet continued to grow strong under his watchful gaze and went on to be released back to the wild. The following year, Murphy fostered a second eaglet in need with the same dedication he gave the first.
His second eaglet is still in our care, but is making good progress toward release and we expect he will be ready by mid summer.We could not have asked for a better ambassador and role model. We are incredibly grateful for the community that came together as a result of his heartwarming story. We are devastated by this loss and know that the community mourns with us.
Murphy's foster eaglets were the first ones our hospital received in over a decade and we learned a lot about their care and space needs from observing Murphy with them. With what we learned from this, we've designed a series of special aviaries to serve the specific needs of injured and orphaned raptors, including an aviary specialized for eaglets. In honor of Murphy's legacy, we plan to name the eventual eagle fostering aviary Murphy's Manor, so that we can continue to remember him for decades to come. Murphy will be deeply missed, but his legacy will live on in the memories of those who loved him.