Pixabay

Bald eagles use their beaks for critical tasks, such as building nests, catching food and preening. Without them, they can’t survive.

With their fierce, intense eyes, deadly claws and hooked beaks, bald eagles have adorned flags and led armies into battle throughout the ages. The national emblem of the United States since 1782—and a spiritual symbol for Native Americans for far longer—the bald eagle is the very embodiment of our ideas about power, freedom and independence.

That’s why it’s particularly difficult to see one of these mighty birds of prey in a vulnerable and critical state. This is where the story of Beauty, the bald eagle, begins.

Beauty was living in Alaska when part of her beak was shot off. The injury left her unable to feed herself. She certainly would have died without the help of a caring, Idaho-based raptor specialist and a kinetic engineer who joined forces just in time to save her.

Watch as Beauty is fitted with the first-ever, bald eagle prosthetic beak.

Here’s to finding your true places and natural habitats,

Candy