Along a wooded trail at Latta Nature Preserve, some of the sky’s fiercest hunters stare back at you. The Carolina Raptor Center — part museum, part hospital, wholly devoted to birds of prey — treats more than 800 injured and orphaned raptors a year, releasing the majority back to the wild.
The three-quarter-mile Raptor Trail winds past spacious aviaries home to bald and golden eagles, great horned owls, red-tailed hawks and charismatic vultures — residents whose injuries made them permanent ambassadors. Flight shows and keeper talks reveal the science of rehabilitation, while the eagle aviary’s scale (and its residents’ dignity) stops every visitor mid-trail.
It’s conservation you can look in the eye — a Charlotte treasure where second chances have wingspans.
