For owls that are superb.
US Wild Animal Rescue Database: Animal Help Now
International Wildlife Rescues: RescueShelter.com
Australia Rescue Help: WIRES
Germany-Austria-Switzerland-Italy Wild Bird Rescue: wildvogelhilfe.org
If you find an injured owl:
Note your exact location so the owl can be released back where it came from. Contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitation specialist to get correct advice and immediate assistance.
Minimize stress for the owl. If you can catch it, toss a towel or sweater over it and get it in a cardboard box or pet carrier. It should have room to be comfortable but not so much it can panic and injure itself. If you can’t catch it, keep people and animals away until help can come.
Do not give food or water! If you feed them the wrong thing or give them water improperly, you can accidentally kill them. It can also cause problems if they require anesthesia once help arrives, complicating procedures and costing valuable time.
If it is a baby owl, and it looks safe and uninjured, leave it be. Time on the ground is part of their growing up. They can fly to some extent and climb trees. If animals or people are nearby, put it up on a branch so it’s safe. If it’s injured, follow the above advice.
For more detailed help, see the OwlPages Rescue page.
From Ryan Burg
Owls are special in every season but finding them in the fall, surrounded by the changing leaves is extra magical to me. I'm a little early here, this area is still a little behind, but you can start to see the yellows creeping in a bit.
Very special freeze with even more special backlight!
Spotted Owlet shot at a coconut farm
From Namita
Cute yet largest owl of India! Indian Eagle Owl It can grow to a wingspan of about 1.5 meters (approximately 5 feet) and has distinctive ear tufts and striking yellow eyes. This owl is commonly found in various habitats, including forests, scrublands, and urban areas across India.
From Harold Wilion
People are always leaving comments on my Screech owl photos how they are always looking, but can never find one. I don't know what the big deal is. The owls are everywhere just waiting to be found.
l actually checked this hole 30 minutes earlier, and no owl When I heard he was out, it was pretty dark and it seemed like minutes before I could find him again. I was actually looking right at him and didn't even see him because he blended in so well.
The second photo is how he actually appeared through 560mm worth of lens when he already adopted a posture that was easier to see because he was getting ready to fly instead of when he was just sitting back in his hole. And of course, in reality it was so much darker than what appears in the photo.
If you want to get a good idea of this condition, bring up the second photo on your cellphone, hold it at arm's length, and squint so you are blocking out almost all light. There you have it.
So, even knowing where a hole is that may be occupied by an owl, sometimes the timeframe from when it appears to when it flies can be so short, sometimes just minutes, it can make for a tough challenge. Then imagine knowing there is an owl in a certain park, but there are trees with literally hundreds of holes to check and if you're not looking at the correct time, might still miss it.
But all is not lost. There are some Screech owls that can spend all day sleeping in the sun and very exposed. So never give up, never surrender.
1/8 second, f5.6, 5000
From Steve Klett
I went on a trip to BC this Spring in hopes of seeing a Great Gray owl, or two, or three... They were nice enough to oblige. I was seated on the ground watching this one perched up high in a tree, when it suddenly Swooped down and landed on this perch right at the minimum focus distance of my lens. What a ham!
From Owl Rescue Centre
Seventeen rescues for the day. Hopefully these two cutest little Pearl-spotted owlets are tonight's last though. Now the night shift starts for feeding everyone
From World Bird Sanctuary
Eastern Screech Owl 24-627 came to our hospital after being struck by a vehicle. They were suffering from severe head and ocular trauma and had sustained a fracture to their left radius. The ocular trauma ended up resulting in one of their eyes developing a temporarily unusual appearance.
The left eye initially had a large amount of interior hemorrhage, which initially presented as a red discoloration. As the blood started to diffuse, the eye turned green as a result of the pigment interaction. The right conditions for an eye to turn green are rarely met, as it is dependent on the location/amount of blood present, the iris color, and other factors. Despite ocular trauma affecting over 1/3 our patients, we only have 1-2/year turn green.
After 2 weeks of care, 627's eye has returned to its normal color, though the trauma is still limiting vision from it. The radius fracture is also healing well so far. It is still too early to tell if 627 will recover enough to be released, and they will need at least another month of care before we can assess if the fracture or vision impairment will affect their ability to survive in the wild.
I feel bad for this little one's situation of course, but in a medical science way, this is very fascinating to see. It is a very beautiful color. I am glad it's starting to get better though!
From Center for Wildlife
Ever find yourself in a sticky situation? This Great- horned Owl sure did.
These are some before and after photos of patient 2105, a beautiful Great-horned Owl who found themselves stuck in a manure pile on a farm. 2105 was most likely pursuing prey or misjudged a landing and was then entrapped in the manure pile where they clearly had quite the struggle.
Unfortunately, this owl did some significant damage to a handful of primary feathers and was extremely dehydrated. After being cleaned up, our team got to work providing fluid therapy and assessing for any additional damage. 2105 is still with us after 29 days of care and will hopefully continue on a path to release.
From Ramonde Marie
Before watching the GHO RaptorCam this year, I never thought of owls eating snakes, but they seem to really enjoy them.
Came upon this cute photo of a Tawny Owl in one of the owl spam feeds, so no info or origin or anything.
Captive owls need mental stimulation like anyone else, so they are given objects they are unfamiliar with so they can explore them and interact with them.
RaptorTAG has a Google Doc with tons of enrichment ideas for raptors if you're curious.
From A Place Called Hope
Lucky Barred Owl hoooo was saved and transported to APCH for care
Lead photo is after the successful surgery.
Rescued, hydrated, medicated, and set and wrapped for recovery!
From Paul Bannick
Northern Pygmy-Owl Fledglings (Glaucidiunm gnoma)
Two fledgling Pygmy Owls roost together moments hours after leaving their nest. Pygmy-Owls are among the few owls that can fly from the nest, but even they often end upon the ground during their first weeks and must climb leaning trees to safety.
As we reduce fuel loads to help control forest fires, we must retain standing dead trees for nests and learning trees and snags for young flightless owls to use to get themselves off of the dangerous ground.
From Harold Wilion
Deep, deep in a dark forest in Middle Earth one of nature's miracles awakens and gets ready to start the night's hunt from the most gnarly tree l've ever photographed an owl in. It wasn't easy finding my way out of the pitch-dark forest and was prepared to hunker down for the night and defend myself against the creatures that would soon roam.
From Ken Grille
Great Horned Owl release October 2024, Plymouth, Ma. It's on an extremely rare occasion that get to see a a majestic Owl this close up. But on this day my friend from Cape Wildlife Center invited me to join a release of this beautiful rehabilitated animal. This GHO was not doing well when rescued, needing TLC for about a month, but seemed to be as good as new when he flew off back into the wilderness on this day. My favorite part of this sequence was right before the release when the Owl turned his head and looked right until his rescuer's eyes as if to say thank you I'm ready now. Quite a moment. And then within seconds he flew off into the thick brush to resume the life of a GHO. Note: This GHO tested negative for HPAI (bird flu) so handler did not have to wear full PPE when handling him.
We are fortunate to have a few amazing wildlife rescue centers in our area and Cape Wildlife does incredible work. They save the lives of numerous baby and adult animals and am so grateful to them for what they do. There is a link on their website to donate if you wish to help them out. (Or just click right here!)
Photo: Hindu goddess Lakshmi with her owl
CONTENT WARNING:
This is an older article, but I chose it because I felt of the half dozen or so I read, this one covered the most in the least blameful way, and the least graphically while still not hiding anything important. Other than the depressing part about people doing harm to owls for no good reason, I didn't want to share anything that painted the whole Indian subcontinent as ignorant or malicious people. I felt this one points the blame at the scammers who are taking advantage of both the people and the owls.
It also says it's not just remote villagers, but also wealthy people in the largest, most modern cities. Also, perhaps most importantly, that even though the areas it is practiced may be wide, that it is a fringe belief, and that it is mainly less openly criticized is most don't seem to think this stuff is still going on in this current age.
I am not an expert on anything concerning India or it's culture, and what experience I have had with people from that part of the world has all been positive, and I don't want this to lead anyone to think otherwise. I just saw an article about this being a concern among animal rights groups, and was intrigued such practices exist. I feel we hear of traditional Chinese medicine and with COVID and stories of wet markets, they seem to get all the attention for these practices, but it still happens in many parts around the world.
I think it is important to shine a light on anything we find unpleasant, because we can't try to fix anything we don't know about or turn a blind eye to it.
NEW DELHI, India — As the rest of India celebrates Hinduism's festival of lights on Tuesday, unscrupulous witch doctors known as “tantriks” will sneak into the country's dark corners to kill some of its rarest and most majestic birds of prey.
It's India's secret shame — unknown even to most devout Hindus. But the religion's most important holiday, Diwali, marks a supposedly auspicious time for the sacrifices of threatened and even critically endangered owls — a rite that some believe can win favor from the goddess of wealth, Lakshmi.
“You take the leading newspapers of today itself, there will be 50, 20, 30 ads from tantriks advertising remedies of almost all kinds,” said Abrar Ahmed, an expert on the trafficking of birds.
“When people can be milked out, these tantriks will prescribe something which is difficult to get — they'll say an owl of 5 kgs or a certain weight or certain size. There is where they make money…. They are the ones creating a demand.”
India is home to 32 species of owls, 13 of which Ahmed discovered being sold as part of the illegal trade in wild birds. Most, if not all, are included on International Union for Conservation of Nature's “Red List” of threatened species, while at least one, the forest owlet, is critically endangered, according to “Imperilled Custodians of the Night,” a report Abrar wrote for Traffic in 2010.
The most common species sold is the spotted owlet, which has adapted to living in cities and is therefore in little danger of dying out. But threatened species like the brown fish owl can also be found for sale, and the threatened rock eagle owl is the “most preferred” by witch doctors — a bad omen for its future survival.
According to Ahmed, trafficked owls and their body parts are primarily used for supposed black magic — which still claims several lives for human sacrifice each year, if newspaper reports from the hinterland are to be believed. There is a regular, organized trade in live owls. In tribal areas, where the majority of people believe that owls can ward off evil spirits, feathers and talons are placed in amulets, and owls can be found piled up for sale at local fairs. And in cities and towns, even the country's wealthiest industrialists and politicians visit tantriks — in the hope of having a son, curing illness or infertility, or amassing a magic-assisted fortune.
For most Hindus, Diwali is a joyous festival. Families festoon their homes with electric lights and burn small candles or oil lamps, called diyas, to commemorate the victory of the god Ram over the demon Ravana and Ram's return home with his stolen wife, Sita — a foundation myth told in the Ramayana, one of Hinduism's most important epics. Friends get together to gamble. The markets overflow with “Diwali hampers” filled with chocolates, nuts, and traditional Indian sweets — gifts to be exchanged, Christmas-style.
But even if the Diwali lights are meant to represent the victory of good over evil, as well as a welcoming beacon for Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, the five day festival is the most deadly time of all for the owls.
The reason: The amavasya, or new moon night, of Diwali is claimed to be the most auspicious time for owl sacrifices, Ahmed found after nearly two years of research he conducted for Traffic — a joint body that monitors the illegal wildlife trade for the World Wildlife Fund and International Union for Conservation of Nature.
“The practice happens throughout the year, but the kalratri [the eve of Diwali] is considered auspicious,” said Ahmed. “That makes the tantrik very rich in terms of hoodwinking people to pay their price. If they don't have a deadline, if they don't have a reason for the practice to happen at a particular moment of the year, people will be casual in their attitude.”
Indians who are free of superstition remain ignorant of the illegal trade. But the trafficking of thousands of species of wild birds — including owls intended for these sacrifices — happens just out of sight, even in the bird market of Old Delhi. Though the traders are smart enough not to display their owls alongside the hundreds of parakeets and wild song birds for sale, all it takes is a few whispered queries and a seller will offer not only to procure the owl but perhaps even to perform the sacrifice. A one-stop shop, poaching and black magic for as little as $150, according to a recent investigation by the Sunday Guardian's Abhimanyu Singh.
“People will say, we will deliver the owl on Thursday morning — whenever you need it for that matter — because it's a bird that has to be fed on a crow or a parrot,” said Ahmed. “It was made to be delivered on our doorstep.”
There are at least 50 hubs for the selling of wild birds, including owls, across India, according to Traffic. And 21 of them are major trafficking centers, with an estimated turnover of 20,000 to 50,000 wild birds per year.
Worse, the Diwali sacrifices are only the most visible part of the owl trade — at least for urban India.
Traveling through the tribal regions of states like Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — where indigenous peoples from the Damora, Bhil, Munda and countless other groups still live in the forest much as they have for thousands of years — Ahmed found piles of owl carcasses at local fairs. He witnessed local shamans performing rites with live owls. And he learned from tribal bird trappers how owls are captured and reared to catch other birds — which will “mob” the captured owl when the trapper mimics the desired species' distress call.
So, too, the superstitions surrounding owls go much beyond Diwali sacrifices.
In a survey of bookstores selling religious texts, Ahmed found prescriptions for telling the future using a live owl, hypnotizing an enemy by feeding him an owl's feather or blood, making yourself invisible using an owl's heart and other body parts, cursing an enemy's family with an owl's skull, and countless others.
But perhaps the darkest revelation of all was not the depth and prevalence of these superstitions among India's poor and illiterate, but their prominence even among the educated urban elite.
“Last week, a big horned owl was stolen from Chatbir Zoo [in Chandigarh, Punjab],” said Ahmed. “Do you see the correlation of the time? Even in a very big zoo — and this has happened in two other zoos also — the owl is not safe.”
From Mahesh Kerakatte
Deception. Perfect camouflage making one believe that the bird is part of the tree trunk.
Indian Scops Owl
Pench Tiger Reserve
Update on the Short Eared Owl rescued in Pennsylvania the other day.
From Raven Ridge Wildlife Center
We are absolutely delighted to share some exhilarating news! After a long period of anticipation, the surgery on the Short-Eared Owl was a resounding success. This procedure was incredibly delicate, involving a bone as thin as an eggshell and the diameter of a pencil. Our dedicated team, led by the skilled Dr. Libby and Dr. Parsons, handled it with utmost care, expertly inserting two slender rods to ensure the bone aligns perfectly for healing.
The X-rays confirm that the rods are securely in place. Now, the exciting journey of healing and rehabilitation begins! We can't express enough gratitude to the fantastic team at Companion Animal Hospital for their unwavering support of our patients. When we all work together we are making a difference!
From Sonoma Magazine
Barn owls are the sole vineyard workers to take no note of harvest season. From their perspective up in tree hollows, barn lofts and custom nest boxes mounted on poles, the rows of vines laden with ripe fruit are of little interest.
They’re focused instead on the ground below, where their work is done and their food — rodents — is found. A family of barn owls may eat more than 1,000 in a single season. That translates into a lot of critters that won’t be feasting on the tasty (so we hear) roots of grapevines.
Kelsey Reidinger of Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue says that roughly half of the 40 or so new nest boxes installed annually through its 13-year-old Barn Owl Maintenance Program (BOMP), are placed in vineyards.
“Because gophers can cause such issues for winegrape growers, barn owls are attractive to vintners,” she says.
Members of the Wildlife Rescue’s Barn Owl Management Project introduced a foster owl, second from right, into an established family on a vineyard property in Sonoma County. The owls reduce rodent populations, bringing up to 25 gophers back to the nesting box each night. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat) The other half of the group’s owl boxes go into other types of agricultural fields. Either way, the real winner is the region’s overall ecological balance. Barn owls are natural predators of gophers, and our open landscapes are their natural habitat. That’s why they’re called barn owls, after all: They tend to find shelter there, surrounded by farmland.
Barns and fields mimic the tree cavities in grasslands and savannas to which they’re adapted. (Great horned owls, also common countywide, prefer more wooded areas.) Resident owls also forestall the need for rodent poisons, which can be counterproductive by also killing predators.
Though barn owls don’t give a hoot about harvest, late summer and early fall are important for other reasons. This is when juvenile owls, at their own ripe old age of two months, fledge from the nest. And it’s when vacant owl boxes must be thoroughly cleaned, another service that Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue provides.
“After they’re born, these owls are doing all of their business inside of the box, and they do no housekeeping,” Reidinger explains. “Over the 60 days that they’re in the box, it leads to inches of material.”
After all, a clean owl box is a healthy owl box, and a healthy barn owl is worth more than its weight in fine wine.
From Cape Wildlife Center
"What, were you raised in a barn?!"
"Yes" barn owls probably.
Pardon the pun, but we are in shock over here. This is the second nest of baby barn owls we have found in the last several weeks! This species is rarely seen in Massachusetts and has not been documented nesting in our area for several decades, yet we have rescued injured chicks from two separate nests just a few miles apart.
Yesterday we were called out to a local buisness in Falmouth after a chick was spotted on the ground in a busy work area. The chick had fallen 30ish feet and landed on cement and broke one of his legs quite badly in the fall. We rushed him back to our hospital for medical treatment, and he is currently recuperating in our care.
Today, we received a call that a second chick was spotted on the ground at the same location. We arrived on scene and were greeted by some pretty awesome employees who were helping to keep the owl safe until help arrived. We gave him a field-exam and determined that this chick had miraculously survived the fall without injury. He also was quite chubby, which indicated that mom and dad must still be in the picture and actively feeding him. We decided that getting him back up to the nest and setting a camera up to make sure the parents returned was the best option.
The problem was we didn't have a ladder tall enough. Well, the employees came through again, and rigged up a custom owl elevator. With their help we reached the nest and were about to deposit the owlet back in his house when we noticed two more apple-shaped faces staring back at us. And screaming. A lot. We returned the fallen owlet to his siblings and after a quick screaming match all was forgiven. The three huddled together and receded back into the eves to safety.
Next, we had to rig up something to keep the trio safe the event any of them decided to jump-ship again. The crew there had just the thing! They returned with a gia pile of wood shavings and spread it beneath the nest creating a soft landing pad for any would-be daredevils.
Last thing on the list was to set up a camera to ensure mom or dad returned tO care for them. After some technical difficulties and a quick trip to Walmart to purchase a working trail cam we returned to finish the job. We handed the camera over to one of the employees to mount on a nearby beam to get a good angle when He was almost struck in the head by one of the parents! They had returned while we stepped out and did not take kindly to the intrusion. Seeing that they were In good hands, we backed-off and headed home. The employees will keep an eye on the nest while mom and dad finish raising them. In the meantime we will do our best to get the fourth sibling healthy and return him to his family.
Seeing that they were In good hands, we backed-off and headed home. The employees will keep an eye on the nest while mom and dad finish raising them. In the meantime we will do our best to get the fourth sibling healthy and return him to his family.
A huge thank you to the employees and owners of the business for looking out for these owls! (We are not naming them publicly to protect the birds)
