A hawk in Virginia was found grounded in a driveway, unable to fly — and vets discovered the problem was not an injury at all. She was, in the wildlife centre’s own words, “too darn fat to fly”.
The adult female red-shouldered hawk was found sitting in a resident’s driveway about a mile from the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center in Roanoke, and taken to the centre’s wildlife hospital. Staff checked her for broken bones, lead poisoning, eye problems, head trauma, bruising and signs of malnutrition. Every test came back clear.
The diagnosis on the scales
Then they weighed her. At more than 910 grams — about two pounds — she was nearly a full pound above the normal weight for a female red-shouldered hawk. The layer of fat was so thick that vets said they could not even feel her keel, the prominent breastbone used to assess a bird’s condition.
“The diagnosis: At over 910g in weight, she was too darn fat to fly! We couldn’t even palpate her keel due to the heavy layer of fat covering it,” the centre posted on Facebook, in a post reported by UPI on 2 November and by Dexerto on 5 November.
A free chicken buffet
The resident who found the bird spoke with neighbours and learned that free-roaming chickens nearby had been disappearing over the previous several weeks. Wildlife officials believe the hawk had been taking advantage of the easy food source, eating repeatedly and resting nearby between meals.
The centre noted that it is “RARE for wild animals to become obese without human intervention”, and it is urging residents to cover their chicken runs to prevent wild predators from turning backyards into buffets. The hawk, patient RSHA 26-2599, is now on a strict weight-loss diet at the wildlife centre.
It is a reminder that in nature, as in life, a free lunch can come with a cost — in this case, the ability to get off the ground.
Sources: UPI, 2 Nov 2026; Dexerto, 5 Nov 2026; Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center Facebook post (via UPI/Dexerto); NewsChunks, 3 Nov 2026.
