History

In August 2004, Blackland Prairie Raptor Center was incorporated as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization with a small but determined group of individuals and a common goal – to create a place where the people of North Texas could learn, experience and appreciate birds of prey and understand their importance in the environment as a whole.

We began by building appropriate caging for 8 non-releasable raptors and the use of an existing shed on a Board members property approximately 70 miles northeast of Dallas. We offered educational presentations to schools, festivals, camps and environmental groups as well as anyone else interested in learning about raptors, reaching more than 5,000 people in the first year.

BPRC signed a lease in 2007 with the US Army Corps of Engineers to use Brockdale Park on Lavon Lake to build our future. The vision was to build a facility for our education raptors, a clinic for raptor rehabilitation and a permanent education building open to the public on this 66-acre park.

• 2009 the education mews are built to hold 14 raptor ambassadors for outreach programming
• 2012 – 13 BPRC receives a donation of two mobile homes that are converted into an office building and rehabilitation clinic. We finally have indoor plumbing and hot water!
• In 2013, more than 30,000 people experienced our birds of prey throughout North Texas.
•  2014 BPRC volunteers build two sets of flight cages, one for medium-size species and one for Cooper’s hawks and Mississippi Kites
• August 5, 2015 BPRC takes in its first patient, a Cooper’s Hawk. That year we received 89 patients
• 2016 BPRC receives a total of 400 patients including a Crested Caracara and 2 Long-eared owls. A small bird complex is built for Screech Owls and Kestrels with 8 small cages and 4 flight cages which helps with the 400+ small owls and falcons we receive.
• 2017 saw amazing growth receiving 764 patients from as far away as Houston and Oklahoma. BPRC receives a Snowy Owl which is rehabilitated and flown to Minnesota for release and Harvey the Hurricane Hawk that had flown into a taxi cab and wouldn’t leave before Hurricane Harvey hit the Houston area. BPRC receives its 1,000 patient since beginning rehabilitation, a Barn Owl.
• In 2018 BPRC constructs an 8,000 square foot flight complex for large raptors and eagles completing the rehabilitation cages necessary to receive up to 1,000 patients per year.

At this time, we are continuing our expansion of education programming and have built a permanent facility for 14 education raptors. We have completed the clinic and appropriate flight caging for the rehabilitation of injured, sick and orphaned birds of prey.