If ol’ Icarius had had better epoxy, maybe his wax would’ve held no matter how close he soared to the sun. But good epoxy was hard to find in ancient times. Even in mythology.

An osprey recently left the Orange Beach Wildlife Center, and the rehabilitation crew there has much more confidence in the epoxy holding its new feathers in place after completing their first “imping” replacement procedure.

The centuries-old method was used for the first time locally on a raptor on July 21. Previously, the center would send patients needing imping up to Auburn University for the procedure and have them returned to Orange Beach for rehab, Veterinarian and Wildlife Program Manager Dr. Hayley Healan said. She’s a local girl who graduated from Orange Beach Elementary and Gulf Shores Middle then from Gulf Shores High School in 2013.

“You replace the damaged flight feathers on a live bird, usually raptors, birds of prey, hawks, eagles,” Healan said. “An osprey is what we did it on. You go in and you actually take the feathers off of a deceased one of the same age, same size and same species and take their feathers.”

Feathers not only have to match breed and size requirements, but the replacement feathers must also be from the exact location along the wing’s fan.

“Each primary feather has a number, so you have to make sure you have that exact line or it won't work from the other,” Healan said. “Measure it out, make sure they're the same length.”

Not only was this the first bird in Orange Beach to be treated via imping, but it also it was Healan’s first using the procedure on a live patient. She first practiced the process in October at the Association of Avian Veterinarians during a workshop using cadavers.

The process first came to use in the 1240s when Roman Emperor Frederick II wrote about it in his book “The Art of Falconry.” His narrative shows how metal pins were dipped in saltwater then inserted into the feather shaft where the metal would rust securing the replacement.

“This is not an unusual thing, but it's unusual for here,” Healan said. “It's pretty awesome because it's a pretty cool procedure.”

Today’s method can involve a variety of materials to secure the replacements with the help of modern adhesives.

“We use usually like bamboo skewers, little pieces of them, or pieces of other feather shafts, whatever matches the diameter of that area,” Healan said. “And we use epoxy, like five-minute epoxy that you get at the store. I know it sounds wild, and we actually use hair clips to hold the feathers together.”

The process is one feather at a time then waiting for the epoxy to set before going on to the next one. The Orange Beach osprey had a total of six feathers replaced, three on each wing.

“You just kind of sit there and wait, and it takes about five minutes or so,” Healan said. “It's a longer procedure, depending on how many feathers you have to do.”

Where you attach it on the shaft is vitally important as well. Eventually, the osprey will lose all its feathers over time through molting. Replacement feathers stop short of the mechanism on the bird that allows it to release old feathers when molting begins so the replacement feathers can still “eject” naturally.

“You don't go all the way to the base of the feather,” Healan said. “You actually clip it at a certain point along the shaft and then match that up to the other feather. You'll have the new ones that come in just how they do it naturally. And they do it in a phasic process, too, naturally, so they don't lose them all at once.”

Without the imping process, the osprey would be looking at a rehab stay possibly as long as six months until it goes through the molting process to replace its damaged feathers.

“We'd have to find space for him, transfer him to a new facility until he had molted out,” Healan said.

This osprey, found at the Gulf Shores Wastewater Treatment Plant a little west of the wildlife center on Canal Road, was in and out in about a week.

Healan and staff try to stay ready by logging and storing feathers from deceased birds for the next imping, should the need arise. They have about 100 on hand.