Murphy, the beloved bald eagle who became a real foster father in 2023 after weeks spent incubating a rock, was found dead in his enclosure at a bird sanctuary in Missouri this month after a fierce storm pummeled the region on March 14, his keepers said last week.
In a statement posted to social media, officials at the World Bird Sanctuary, a reserve in Valley Park, Mo., about 22 miles southwest of St. Louis, said that a full necropsy showed that Murphy, 33, had sustained “some form of trauma to his head.” The sanctuary said that it was unclear if the bird had been “spooked by something and hit his head while jumping off a perch or if wind and precipitation played a part in the injury.”
Murphy had experienced “countless storms” over the years without issue, the sanctuary said. The sanctuary said that all of its birds had access to shelters to protect themselves from severe weather, and that the storm on March 14, which killed 12 people in Missouri, had not required any bird evacuations since no tornadoes approached the facility.
“While we do everything that we can to keep our birds safe,” the statement added, “accidents outside of our control can happen.”
Roger Holloway, the sanctuary’s executive director, said in an interview on Sunday that although strong winds and some hail had struck the sanctuary, neither Murphy’s enclosure nor the other eagles inside it appeared to have been affected. One possibility is that Murphy had been knocked on the head by a hailstone, Mr. Holloway said.
Murphy, who could not fly, had lived at the sanctuary since the 1990s. He gained international fame about two years ago after his keepers — noticing his tenacity and dedication to a small, meteorite-shaped rock upon which he brooded — entrusted him with a real charge: A tiny eaglet that had fallen from a tree in a storm and was in dire need of a parent. He was the only bald eagle that has ever been a foster parent at the sanctuary.
Murphy rose to the challenge, responding to the chick’s peeps, protecting it and tearing a whole fish into smaller pieces that the eaglet could eat. Though Murphy, who had wing damage, could not teach the eaglet to fly or hunt, he proved to be a devoted dad. His story inspired memes, illustrations and a plush toy, and also won him scores of fans worldwide.
Murphy’s eaglet grew strong and was eventually released into the wild, according to the sanctuary. So keepers gave him another eaglet to foster. That second bird is still in the sanctuary’s care, the sanctuary said, and is progressing toward release by this summer.
“Murphy helped him to really get to the end point of growing up,” Mr. Holloway said of the second eaglet, noting that the elder bird helped the younger one “to know he was an eagle.”
“All Murphy had to do was sit there and look like an eagle and eat and preen and just do what eagles do,” Mr. Holloway said.
As Murphy’s keepers mourned his loss, they said, they also felt grateful for the several years he had lived beyond a bald eagle’s typical life span, which is 20 to 25 years.
“His resilience, spirit, and dedication as a foster dad touched the hearts of millions of people throughout the world,” the sanctuary said in its statement, adding, “We are devastated by this loss.”
The World Bird Sanctuary said it had learned a lot by observing Murphy with his eaglets, which were the first it had received in more than a decade. The center has since designed special aviaries “to serve the specific needs of injured and orphaned raptors.” The sanctuary said it plans to name that facility “Murphy’s Manor” in his honor.
“Birds of prey are apex predators,” Mr. Holloway said, “but they have that tender side too.”
