SARTELL -- Birds of prey got to spread their wings inside the Sartell Community Center Thursday, as residents learned a few things about some amazing birds found in Minnesota.

The University of Minnesota Raptor Center held a short educational session about these majestic birds, put on by the Sartell Senior Connection.

Kelsey Griffin is an Interpretive Naturalist at the Raptor Center. She says the center has been around since the 1970s to help protect and heal injured raptors.

We see a lot of birds that ran into windows or were hit by cars. Currently we're also interested in the subject of lead poisoning in bald eagles.

Last year alone the center saw over 1,000 birds in their facility, many of which, were brought in by members of the general public.

Our most common patients are bald eagles, great horned owls, and red tail hawks.

Griffin says visits like this not only help inform the public about the birds, but can teach us more about the environment we live in.

It's really important how things are impacting the birds, cause that also means it's impacting us. So it's really for our own good to know more about these birds.

The University of Minnesota Raptor Center is open to the public every Tuesday through Sunday.

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