Oral Roberts Eagle Crash Caught On Video, Ouch! [Video]

An Oral Roberts University blooper video of an eagle crashing into an undignified heap is making the rounds. Since it’s closing in on half a million YouTube views, it’s worth taking a look behind the scenes of the 14-second bald eagle video that you can see by hitting that top button.

Whoa. The footage looks fairly horrifying. Lewis the bald eagle is flying in a demonstration performed at Oral Roberts University (ORU) during a special school spirit chapel service on Wednesday, August 22.

The eagle flies in a circle, hits the glass, and goes down.

However, in this case, the video looks worse than the reality.

According to Tulsa World, ORU spokeswoman Carissa Bratschun said that the bald eagle had practiced the flight five or six times. He was really just supposed to go to his trainer.

“When the time came, we’re not really sure what happened. It flew around the room and then hit a window.”

A more extended report for Grind TV about the Oral Roberts bald eagle blooper video noted that Lewis may have been startled by people chanting, “USA, USA.” But trainer Roger Wallace of World Bird Sanctuary went immediately to the fallen eagle and determined that he was fine.

Waggish reporter David Strege says, “Perhaps…this is just a clumsy bird.”

He noted that Lewis is a rescue bird from Washington who fell from the nest and fractured his hip and leg. He cannot be released because he never regained full use of the foot and wouldn’t be competitive in the wild.

Here’s a longer video about the eagle crash that shows the aftermath and rescue:

As you can see in this video, Lewis wasn’t even actually stunned. He swears a little in the language of his people about his crash but otherwise he’s good to go and hop back on his trainer’s arm.

The 13-year-old Oral Roberts bald eagle will be just fine.

[bald eagle thumbnail photo credit: w4nd3rl0st (InspiredinDesMoines) via photopin cc]