‘You really have to know this bird’

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey
Reader Staff

For Mya Jinright, knowledge is power, and that power gives her an even greater chance at doing what she loves: rehabilitating and releasing injured and sick birds of prey.

Jinright, a certified veterinary technician and lover of winged creatures, runs Raptor Freedom Project in Clark Fork with the help of her husband, Tyler, and mom, Judi. At its core, the program aims to rescue, rehab and release birds of prey that have been hurt by a variety of causes, including lead poisoning, rodenticides, in-air collisions, poaching, starvation and more.

Mya Jinright stands with Ellis, a golden eagle from Montana’s Eagle Experience. Courtesy photo.

Raptor Freedom Project currently boasts the ability to perform X-rays on site, as well as two aviaries where birds can heal. Jinright hopes to build a new, larger aviary in the near future in order to better serve the birds in her care.

“Part of the reason that I do this is because I am very concerned with conservation and the huge decline in birds of prey. You can see it in our area,” she said. “With population growth — whether it just be people moving in or housing expansion — we’ve lost a lot of the breeding grounds, hunting grounds and home ranges.”

Red-tailed hawks, for example, used to be far more prevalent on the Rathdrum Prairie, Jinright said.

“They’re now trying to hunt in more urban areas,” she said. “They’re in people’s chicken coops, and there’s a lot more humans clashing with birds of prey than there used to be … and that leads to trouble. It leads to hurt or injured or ill animals, and then they end up with me.”

Jinright told the Reader that she’s spent the past year “chasing knowledge and experience” — much of that knowledge being sought in the field of falconry.

A falconer herself, Jinright connected with Montana’s Eagle Experience in Noxon, Mont., and has been able to expand her skills with the help of veteran falconers Anne and Paul Schnell.

“A lot of people think that falconry is having a bird and then taking it out and flying, but it really is helping condition the bird, teaching them to hunt and helping them get that stamina that’s required of an apex predator,” Jinright said. “What I want to do is bring that into my rehab.”

Her ultimate goal is to mesh her medical knowledge with the technical knowledge of falconry to better prepare raptors for release.

Jinright releases a rehabilitated hawk. Courtesy photos.

“You have to really know this bird, its habitat and its hunting style in order to rehab all the way to release it,” Jinright said.

Another part of her mission with Raptor Freedom Project is to facilitate outreach in the broader community. Jinright will partner with Anne Schnell of Montana’s Eagle Experience to teach an eight-week course called “Understanding Birds of Prey” at the Noxon Fire Hall. The first class is Tuesday, Feb. 7 from 1-4 p.m. (Mountain Time) and subsequent classes will take place at the same time each Tuesday. To sign up, call 406-847-2442 ext. 2. This is an adult-only class, and live birds will be present.

“You can talk about a bird all you want, but they want to see it,” Jinright said. “They want to connect with that entity.”

Jinright, who only works with birds of prey, said there is a desperate need for more wild animal rehab resources in the area. She hopes that people with the time and capabilities will step up to fill the growing need, and that everyone else will remember that there are ways to coexist with their wild neighbors.

“We all come here for the wildlife,” she said, “and now we’re in this Catch-22 of living in a beautiful area but fighting [for] territory with animals, too.”

To learn more about the Raptor Freedom Project, report a grounded bird, or donate to the rehab’s food and aviary building funds, call 509-590-9437.