New feathers mean new life

Ofir, a hiker in Israel’s Dardara region, found a bird lying on the ground and brought it to Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund’s Hula Valley Wildlife Acclimatization Center. Researchers there saw that the bird — a young Eurasian Hobby, was weak, underweight, had broken flight feathers, and showed signs of having been held in captivity.

As the bird was given the chance to recover and regain strength, the center’s team looked for replacement feathers.

Dr. Amos Belmaker of Tel Aviv University’s Steinhardt Museum of Natural History found those feathers. They came from a bird that had died in the wild — it had been electrocuted — and its body had been transferred to the university for research.

Hula Valley Wildlife Acclimatization Center