This x-ray of a dead Cooper’s hawk from Haines shows the path a projectile took through the bird, which died. Blue Mountain Wildlife, Pendleton, reported receiving this hawk and two red-tailed hawks the week of Oct. 19 that all suffered gunshot wounds.

PENDLETON — Blue Mountain Wildlife, the wildlife rehabilitation center near Pendleton, reported receiving three hawks for gunshot wounds the week of Oct. 19, including a dead Cooper’s hawk from Haines.

State and federal laws protect raptors and other native birds that are not game fowl. The Cooper’s hawk had fractures of the right humerus and scapula, according to Lynn Tompkins, Blue Mountain Wildlife’s executive director.

“We suspected the cause was gunshot, but there were no metal fragments visible on an x-ray,” Tompkins wrote in her weekly update, “and we found only one wound on the right shoulder”

A necropsy confirmed the hawk was shot — likely with non-lead ammunition, which does not fragment like lead. There was a small entrance wound on the left side of the back, according to the report, and the wound channel went under the spine, through the right scapula and humerus and exited at the shoulder.

The second was a red-tailed hawk from Wapato, Washington, that suffered multiple fractures. An x-ray revealed six shotgun pellets inside the bird.

“When the accompanying damage in the right wrist, elbow and hip were considered,” according to the update, “euthanasia was the most humane option.”

The third bird was red-tailed hawk from Eltopia, Washington. X-rays showed 14 pellets or pellet fragments inside the hawk, which is undergoing treatment for multiple fractures, including in the left wing. The hawks also appears to be blind in his left eye and may have suffered hearing damage. The raptor also shows signs of lead poisoning from eating prey that had been shot with lead ammunition.

The fractures in the wing could heal, Tomkins reported, but the hawk will need further evaluation to determine if it will be able to catch wild game again.