A red-tailed hawk is recuperating at Red Creek Wildlife Center after sustaining what appear to be methane burns on its body.

The approximately 6-month to 1.5-year-old was brought in recently from Derry Township, Dauphin County.

“He’s got little burn areas all over him,” Peggy Hentz, founder and director of the Schuylkill Haven Center said.

The marks are “typical of a methane burn” because of the singeing and feather damage including melting. Areas of his beak, which should be yellow, are also melted and appear black. Hentz believes the hawk is a male.

“We haven’t gotten one in 15 years,” she said of a bird with methane injuries.

She believes the hawk might have been sitting when the accident took place because the injuries are not on its chest, which would indicate it was flying.

Businesses that emit methane include landfills and sewage treatment plants.

“The dangerous ones (igniting flares) are the ones that ignite intermittently,” Hentz said.

The hawk will need to spend a year at the center so that his feathers can grow back. It is getting fluids three times a day. It is also on pain medication. Employees and volunteers feed it twice a day.

“Right now, it’s in the ICU,” Hentz said.

She called the Pennsylvania Game Commission about the find.

“They were very interested in researching this,” she said.

An employee of the game commission was not available for comment.

Suzanne Chrisemer, a volunteer with Wildlife in Need, and Philip Gunther, a volunteer from the center, helped to capture the hawk. Chrisemer received a call from a bus driver who reported seeing it in a brush area. Chrisemer later went out and could not find it. She called the driver, who told her it was sitting on a guide rail on the road.

They late captured the hawk with a sheet while it was distracted eating something near a fence.

“He didn’t make any noise (when captured),” Chrisemer said.

It was then transported to Red Creek.

Time is of the essence when wildlife are injured. Hentz said contacting appropriate agencies can help give them a fighting chance.

Those who find injured wildlife can go to the website PAWR.com or call Red Creek at 570-739-4393

To donate, go to Red Creek Wildlife Center on Facebook or redcreekwildlifecenter.com.