After nearly 100 days away, Stax the Harris’s hawk is back at HawkWatch International’s Salt Lake City headquarters. The nonprofit said he was recovered on October 6, after a search that drew help from staff, volunteers, falconry experts and people across Utah. Independent reporting published by KUER on October 16 adds how the team used a patient routine to bring the bird back into care.
Stax escaped from HawkWatch’s Sugar House headquarters on June 29. He is a 14-year-old Harris’s hawk and an education ambassador, not a bird being prepared for release. HawkWatch said people reported sightings from Tremonton in the north to St. George in the south. A sighting at the Salt Lake Country Club on July 7 gave the team a place to focus its recovery effort.
The country club became a safe, consistent area where staff could monitor him. HawkWatch said the club gave the recovery team access to its grounds and passed along updates about Stax’s location and condition. The bird had been seen there by a birder, KUER reported. He remained near the club while the team planned how to catch him without sending him farther away.
Stax’s history shaped that plan. HawkWatch said an earlier falconry injury meant he could not safely live on his own in the wild. The organization also notes that Harris’s hawks are not native to Utah and do not typically migrate. KUER reported that Stax had spent more than a decade in falconry before joining HawkWatch two years ago, and that his long contact with people made him difficult to capture.
Rather than chase him, the recovery team established a routine. HawkWatch educator Melissa Halvorsen told KUER that staff put food in the same place at the same time each day. After Stax began returning to it, the team replaced the surface under the food with one fitted with small nooses for his feet. On October 6, that carefully timed approach brought him back into the care of his handlers.
The effort brought several kinds of help together. HawkWatch credited its staff and volunteers, the Utah Falconry Association, and community members. KUER reported that volunteers canvassed nearby neighborhoods and residents around the state kept watch for sightings. The Salt Lake Country Club helped by allowing access and sharing information while the recovery plan took shape. HawkWatch said its scientists and Utah Falconry Association members brought expertise in raptor biology and trapping to the plan.
The return was a rescue into lifelong care, not a return to open wilderness. Stax serves as one of HawkWatch’s Raptor Ambassadors, birds that help the organization teach people about raptors and their habitats. The distinction matters: because of his past injury and experience around people, handlers believed he would be at risk without the familiar care of the education team.
After his recovery, Stax received a veterinary examination and entered quarantine. HawkWatch’s October 13 announcement initially described him as being in good health and said he would quarantine for at least a week before rejoining the other ambassador birds. KUER’s October 16 report provides a later update: the veterinarian found some parasites, described as common in wild birds, and Stax was still awaiting medical clearance.
That newer detail leaves the timeline open. The available reports do not say that Stax has already returned to the classroom or rejoined the ambassador team. They do show that he is back at HawkWatch’s headquarters, where staff can monitor his health while he remains apart from the other birds. Any return to education work depends on veterinary clearance and the end of quarantine.
The search ended through a mix of expertise and local attention: people shared sightings, the country club kept the team informed, and HawkWatch and falconry specialists adapted their plan to Stax’s behavior. As of KUER’s latest report, the 14-year-old hawk was home and under care. For a bird whose role is to help people learn about raptors, the next step is simply a safe recovery on the veterinary team’s schedule.
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