Injured bald eagle Beauty gets 3D printed bionic beak

In 2007, an Alaskan bald eagle named Beauty was shot in the face, she lost her top beak. Beaks are essential for preening feathers and feeding, she was found nearly dead when she was rescued by Jane Fink Cantwell, a bird conservationist near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

She is kept alive by the daily efforts of a liquid tube-feeding by Janie and her small volunteer staff at the Raptor Chapter.

When mechanical engineer Nate Calvin heard about Beauty's tragedy, he wanted to help. He proposed to create a prosthetic beak for her. 18 months after he began, he made a prototype using nylon-based polymer with the help of 3D scanning and Stereolithography technology, a most common rapid prototyping procedure.