‘Miracle’ eagle with broken wing spotted back above Scottish coast

The image shows a sea eagle with a marked bump in its left wing - its wings spread against the background of a grey sky. — Image caption,

Kinky has a distinctive crooked wing where the bone has healed

ByVictoria GillScience correspondent

A sea eagle that confounded experts by surviving into adulthood with a badly broken wing has been spotted back in the skies above Scotland’s west coast.

The bird was dubbed the Isle of Mull’s “miracle eagle” by charity the RSPB after it fell from its nest as a chick during a storm in 2023.

Experts that monitor the island’s sea eagle population did not expect the male chick to survive, but it has now been spotted three years on – soaring above the island with the distinctive kink in its wing clearly visible.

Retired RSPB officer Dave Sexton, whose has worked with the island’s sea eagles for more than 20 years, described the sighting as “incredible”.

The image shows a sea eagle in flight - wings spread against a clear sky. The image is unusual, because the left wing of the bird has a clearly visible bump where it was badly broken when the eagle fell from its nest during a storm back in 2023. — Image caption,

The most recent photograph of Kinky, captured in the south of the Isle of Mull

The bird, affectionately nicknamed Kinky because of the kink in its broken wing, was nursed back to health by its two, unusually caring parents.

In an unprecedented display of extended parenting, the two white-tailed parents skipped a year’s breeding season to continue to tend for their year-old offspring.

This latest sighting, though, reveals that the bird survived his first winter alone.

The bird was photographed flying over Loch Spelve, a sea loch on the south-east coast of Mull.

The image shows two sea eagles - the UK's largest birds of prey. Ther is a dark brown juvenile on the left of the image and a more mature parent next to it. Both birds are perched on a rocky outlook with green vegetation and moss growing on the rocks. The birds both appear to be looking out over the landscape. — Image caption,

After its injury, the young eagle (left) was cared for by its parents well into adulthood

Dave Sexton said: “I’m in awe of this bird!”

But the next phase of its life – which he described as a “sub-adult” could be dangerous.

“He’ll no longer be tolerated as an immature by established adult pairs and might well come in for some ‘you’re not welcome here’ behaviour, which can be pretty severe sometimes.

“But Kinky’s a born survivor; I’m keeping everything crossed for him,” he said.

Figure caption,

Footage of Kinky was captured from a boat back in 2024

Sea eagles, also known as white tailed eagles, were hunted to extinction in the UK and the UK’s last native white-tailed eagle was shot in Shetland back in 1918, according to the charity.

A reintroduction project was started in Scotland in 1975 and the birds have now become established as a self-sustaining population. They returned to the Isle of Mull in the 1980s.