A bird recovering from an injury at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center is in need of a special diet.

And officials at the center are asking for help from local fishermen to consider donating their catch to the cause.An osprey - listed as a threatened species in Pennsylvania - currently recovering at the center needs fish. The center is currently accepting donations.Among the center's many roles is rehabilitating injured birds of prey that are found around the Carbon County area. They recently received an osprey from another center that appears to have suffered a head injury."They're not common everywhere, but they are very particular about what they eat. That is fish," said Susan Gallagher, chief naturalist at the center.The center has not given him a name because typically it only names birds that cannot be released back into the wild.He is expected to make a full recovery, but needs to be kept at the center probably through March before he can be released back into the wild. The goal would be to release him when ospreys begin their spring migration northward.Until the bird can be released, officials have to feed the bird, which refuses to eat the diet typically given to patients at the center.Most of the birds at the center are carrion birds, meaning they can survive on a diet of rodents that the center purchases from a supplier.The center is asking for any legally caught freshwater fish that may be available for the bird. Fish that still have their heads, tails and scales intact can be dropped off at the center during regular business hours (8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.) or they can leave them in a cooler on the back porch of the center.Fish that have already been filleted cannot be accepted because the osprey doesn't recognize the fillet as a fish and won't eat it. Fish can be gutted, but must remain whole.Gallagher said in the wild, ospreys have some unique characteristics that allow them to hunt fish more effectively than other birds, including long wings that allow them to take flight from the water's surface after catching a fish."These are birds that don't just skim the water, they actually dive in, and pull themselves out with their wings and can take off from the water again," she said, pointing out that it is a skill that eagles do not have.Unfortunately, he suffered some feather damage during his recovery at another center that housed him previously.Gallagher said the bird will naturally shed its feathers in a few months, making way for new feathers to grow back."Birds need their feathers - flight feathers and tail feathers in particular," she said.