Flying Free with @pythonpaige and Her Birds of Prey To see more...

Flying Free with @pythonpaige and Her Birds of Prey

To see more of Paige’s work with birds, follow @pythonpaige on Instagram.

As a child growing up in western Pennsylvania, Paige Davis (@pythonpaige) was entranced by the natural world. “I always knew I was going to work with animals when I grew up,” she says. “I just didn’t know what that work would be.” Years later, while earning a degree in wildlife and fisheries science in college, she studied all sorts of creatures, but birds of prey sparked her passion. “I loved working with raptors,” Paige says. “I was hooked.”

Today, Paige and her colleagues at Missouri’s World Bird Sanctuary (@worldbirdsanctuary) share their knowledge of hawks, falcons, owls and other raptors with hundreds of thousands of children and adults each year. Bald eagles, while among the most popular with audiences, “are not the friendliest birds,” Paige admits. “They can be a bit ornery — but they’re truly magnificent.” (Two of the sanctuary’s bald eagles, Lewis and Clark, are the “official eagles” of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.)

“There’s a quote [by French conservationist Jacques-Yves Cousteau], ‘People protect what they love, they love what they understand and they understand what they are taught,’” says Paige. “That’s basically why my job is important, and why I love it.”

by via Instagram Blog