Feathers: imping, coping and damage

Bent versus broken

• A bent feather, or one with the web twisted, is dipped in hot (not boiling) water. It straightens immediately.
• A broken remige, a primary or secondary, is repaired by imping.

Imping

Imping is repairing a feather on a live bird by splicing in a molted feather. It requires the donor feather, an imping needle, and glue.

• The ideal needle is not metal. Metal is traditional but too stiff for a flexible feather shaft and can break along invisible faults. Bamboo works, as do swizzle sticks. The best material is a piece of flexible feather shaft.
• In cross-section the needle should be triangular: it goes in without splitting the shaft and stops the feather rotating.

Repair a broken feather at once, even on the last day of the season, even during the molt. Except for the outermost primaries and tail feathers, a new feather comes down between two that are fully grown, and a broken old feather becomes a hazard to the new one growing beside it.

Marks that tell a story

• Fret marks on a new bird's feathers come from both stress and poor nutrition during growth.
• Shock marks, formerly "hunger streaks" or "hunger traces", mark a point where the bird was stressed enough that feather growth halted. Prolonged hunger causes them, but so does stress generally, and they are essentially universal on eyas hawks.

Coping

Coping is cutting back or shortening the beak or talons. Talons usually wear naturally; the beak more often needs attention. Cope when the beak overgrows and when the talons need it, both. Your first coping is done with your sponsor, not alone. If you cut too far and the vein bleeds, usually no treatment is needed and it clots within a few minutes; styptic powder or gel and pressure hasten it.

The same rule applies to any feather problem you have not met before. Your new red-tail bends feathers hunting and you are unsure what to do: call your sponsor and ask. That is not a cop-out answer, it is the answer.