Rio

About Rio

Rio arrived from Payson as an older nestling. He was found at the foot of a tree after having fallen from a nest and broken his left leg and injured his cere, the fleshy area where the nares are located. The person who cared for him fed him a diet consisting solely of egg yolks and vitamins which lacked the calcium needed for proper growth. As a result, his injuries were complicated by the development of folding fractures in his wings. Once at Liberty, Rio was administered an appropriate diet, but the damage to his wings could not be corrected. To straighten his injured leg, the medical staff had to rebreak it in order to have it heal properly. For several weeks, he had an external fixature attached to the leg which resulted in it healing well. The large gash in his cere could not be corrected. As a result, he has difficulty breathing and often breaths through his mouth.