ST. MARIES, Idaho – The eagle is named Beauty, although she is anything but.

The Associated Press

A mechanical engineer is developing a nylon-composite beak to enable Beauty to eat.

Beauty's beak was partially shot off several years ago, leaving her with a stump that is useless for hunting food. A team of volunteers is working to attach an artificial beak to the disfigured bird in an effort to keep her alive.

"For Beauty, it's like using only one chopstick to eat. It can't be done," said Jane Fink Cantwell, who operates a raptor recovery center here.

Ms. Cantwell has spent two years assembling a team to design and build an artificial beak, and it is due to be attached next month. With the beak, the 7-year-old bald eagle could live to the age of 50, although not in the wild.

The 15-pound female eagle was found in 2005, slowly starving to death at a Dutch Harbor, Alaska, landfill. Most of her curved upper beak had been shot away, and she could not clutch or tear at food.

Beauty was taken to a bird recovery center in Anchorage, where she was hand-fed for two years while her caretakers hoped a new beak would grow.

After caretakers got complicated permits from the federal government, Beauty was taken in 2007 to Cantwell's Birds of Prey Northwest ranch near St. Marie's, Idaho.

Shortly after, Ms. Cantwell was speaking in Boise, where Nate Calvin heard Beauty's story. Mr. Calvin, a mechanical engineer, offered to design an artificial beak.

Molds were made of the existing beak parts and scanned into a computer, so the bionic beak could be created as accurately as possible. The nylon-composite beak is light and durable, and will be glued on to the eagle.

Either way, the beak won't be strong enough to allow Beauty to tear flesh from prey. But it will help her to be able to drink water and eat her food.

Successful attachment of a prosthetic beak is not unheard of, but it remains rare, said Dr. Julia Ponder, executive director of the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota.

"Whether or not it will be functional is a question," Dr. Ponder said.

Nicholas K. Geranios,

The Associated Press