More than 40,000 visitors flock to the Alaska Raptor Center each year to view some of America’s most majestic and iconic birds.
The facility, a 25-minute walk from downtown, is Alaska’s premier avian rescue center and sanctuary, with a mission to promote and enhance wild populations of raptors and other avian species through rehabilitation, education, and research.
Each year, Sitka’s Alaska Raptor Center treats around 200 injured birds. It specializes in raptor rehabilitation, but will come to the aid of any wild bird in need. Rescued birds are provided care by specially trained staff with the hope that they will be returned to the wild.
Birds so severely injured they can’t be released may remain at the facility to become “Raptors-in-Residence” for outreach and education programs. These ambassadors are a vital part of the staff, assisting with educational efforts in raptor ecology and environmental conservation.
Among residents are bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, a peregrine falcon; great-horned, snowy, and great-grey owls; and tiny northern saw-whet owls.
The Alaska Raptor Center was launched in 1980, when a Sitka couple began treating an injured bald eagle in their garage. The center settled at its current 17-acre campus at 1000 Raptor Way in 1991. The campus saw a major renovation in 2003, and now features four convalescent rooms, two vertical flight enclosures where birds can test wing fitness and regain lift, and a 20,000-cubic-foot flight training facility where patients return to full flight and demonstrate their stamina and maneuverability before being released back into the wild.
“We are dedicated to providing humane treatment to all avian wildlife coming through our doors, and we do whatever we can medically to get them back to the wild,” executive director Jennifer Cross said.
Admission is $16 for adults, $8 for children ages 6-12, and free for children age 5 and under. Admission includes an interpretive tour of the grounds, rehab facility and bird viewing areas. Also available is a self-guided 15-minute nature walk on the center’s campus that takes visitors along Indian River, through the Tongass National Forest, and into a muskeg meadow.
The Center, located off of Sawmill Creek Road across the highway from Sitka National Historical Park, is scheduled to be open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week, from April 29 to September 29.
More information is available online at AlaskaRaptor.org and on the Alaska Raptor Center’s Facebook page, Alaska Raptor Center; and on Instagram and X @RaptorOrg. The center can be reached by email at members@alaskaraptor.org. The phone number is (907) 747-8662.
