AN animal sanctuary has saved an injured hawk’s life by giving it a feather transplant...with the aid of pins and Superglue.

The sparrowhawk’s wings were damaged when it got tangled in netting, designed to keep birds off shops in Clacton. It was taken to Wildlives Animal sanctuary, in Thorrington where staff carried out their first-ever feather transplant.

Centre boss, Rosie Catford said: “Birds of prey such as sparrowhawks and kestrels have to have 100 per cent ability to fly, or they can’t catch their prey.

“They moult every year in September, at the end of the breeding season, but we couldn’t afford to wait for it to grow new feathers and there was no way it could hunt with its wings in that condition.”

Staff at the centre practised for the delicate op, using chicken feathers.

They then had to find exact matches for the snapped feathers, using specimens collected from dead birds.

Special ultra-light medical pins were then used to slot the new feathers into the shafts of the old ones, gluing them in place.

Ms Catford added: “They had to be exactly the same shape and length.

“We covered her with a towel and she stayed perfectly still for us.”

It took volunteer Debbie Abrahams an hour and a half to carry out the operation.

She had to make sure not to get glue on the other feathers, drying the glue with a hairdryer.

However, the effort was all worth it, as the operation has turned out to be a huge success.

Ms Catford said: “We were really chuffed.

“We’d seen it done at a specialist birds of prey place before, but we’d never done it ourselves.

“It was very fiddly, but Debbie is into embroidery, so she’s got a steady hand.

“She did a fantastic job.”

The sparrowhawk, christened Speedy by staff was soon on the road to recovery and is now back in the wild Ms Catford said: “We’ve got a new flight pen which is enormous.

“We put Speedy out there and watched her on the CCTV and she was flying brilliantly.

“We kept her for about a week, then opened the pen and off she went like a rocket – it was fantastic.”