- Hey friends.

My name is Trey, and I'm with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

At the Game and Fish Commission, our job is to take care of all the animals of Arkansas, but we also like to inform and educate people about the animals.

Today, we're at the Delta Rivers Nature Center in Pine Bluff.

And we're gonna meet my friend Trent who's gonna tell us all about birds of prey.

Let's go.

Hey Trent, how's it going today?

- It's going pretty good.

- Well, what have you got here?

- So this is one of the birds that lives here at the nature center.

This is a barred owl.

So this guy is one of the birds of prey that we have here that are non-releasable.

So we only keep the ones that can't be released back into the wild.

- You said birds of prey.

What exactly is a bird of prey?

- So a bird of prey is a bird that only eats meat.

It has forward facing eyes, just like us, so it can keep its eyes on whatever it's chasing down.

It has a sharp curved beak, so it can tear apart meat really well.

Then it also has some really sharp talons there.

So that's why I have to wear this glove.

- [Trey] Well, this guy's got some really big eyes.

- [Trent] Yes, he does.

Those big eyes help him see at night so he can use what little lights available to be able to chase around mice and rats.

- That's incredible.

What other kind of birds of prey do you take care of here at the Delta Rivers Nature Center.

- So here at the nature center, we have three species of owls, including this guy.

We also have two red tailed hawks.

We have a black vulture and we have some bald eagles as well.

- [Trey] Cool.

You want to go check out the vultures next?

- Yeah let's go check him out.

(upbeat music) - Trent, this is a black vulture, correct?

- Yes.

- [Trey] Tell us a little bit about this bird.

- This is one of the two species of vultures that we have here in Arkansas.

So we have black vultures and turkey vultures.

Now a lot of people think these guys are gross because they eat a lot of roadkill or animals that have already passed.

But they're actually very important because what they're doing is they're cleaning up our environment.

So they're removing diseases that can be spread by other animals like mice and rats and things.

- [Trey] I think a lot of people might be surprised to even learn that a vulture is a bird of prey.

You don't think of them that way.

- Yeah, but they have all those features we talked about earlier.

So they have forward facing eyes, the sharp curved beak and sharp talons.

- [Trey] Now how would a turkey vulture differ from a black vulture?

- So turkey vultures, they look a little bit bigger.

They use their sense of smell to actually find whatever they're going to go after.

Whereas black vultures use their eyesight and they look a little different.

So turkey vultures are more brown than they are black.

And they have red heads.

- And how did this bird end up here?

How do any of these birds end up at the nature center?

- [Trent] These guys would have all been injured in the wild some way and can't be re-released.

And this guy he's actually what we call an imprint.

So he was raised by people.

He was found in an abandoned building in Hot Springs after part of the building had collapsed.

- [Trey] What's special about these birds, vultures in particular?

- [Trent] Well, vultures are incredibly smart.

They are very social animals.

So they like being around other animals.

So once they kind of imprint on people, they really like being around us.

So we can do a lot more work with this bird than we can with the others.

Just because he really wants a relationship with us.

- [Trey] That is fascinating information, Trent.

I think one of the birds that these young folks are really going to be excited about though, is the bald eagle.

We've got some bald Eagles here at the Delta Rivers Nature Center.

- [Trent] Yes, we have three of them.

You guys want to go check them out?

- [Trey] Absolutely.

- Well let's go do it.

- [Trey] Trent, we're standing in front of the eagle pen.

We've got bald eagles in here.

Now tell me why we're not going inside, like we did with the other bird.

- Well, these birds are not glove trained like the others.

These birds were found when they were a little bit older, so they don't like being near people.

So we could actually scare them by going into their enclosure.

- We don't want to scare the birds.

The bald eagle obviously is a bird that I'm sure a lot of people have heard about.

It's our national symbol, but a lot of really cool facts about eagles too.

- Yeah.

Hundreds of Eagles migrate here in Arkansas every year and we find immature bald eagles all over the place.

We actually had a couple fly over this morning.

- Right here at the nature center.

- Right here at the nature center.

- Well tell us a little bit more about eagles.

How are they different from some of the other birds we've seen today?

- So bald eagles are the second largest bird of prey that we have here in Arkansas.

The largest is actually the golden eagle.

Bald eagles are incredibly strong and powerful birds.

They have about a six to seven foot wingspan.

If you're talking about males versus females, the females are actually bigger than the males are.

- Well if they're that strong, I understand now why we may not be going into the pen with them.

- Yep, definitely.

- Well, these eagles are incredible.

All these birds of prey are incredible.

Trent, thank you so much for sharing your expertise and knowledge about birds of prey with us today.

If you are into nature or want to get into nature, come see us here at the Delta Rivers Nature Center in Pine Bluff.

Thanks a lot, Trent.

- Thank you.

- We'll see you next time.

- Yeah, see you.