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this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2025
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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.
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I looked through the first entries and most don't even have a functioning webpage. Those who have pages are mostly wildlife parks that do advertising for visitors. I'll use this comment to add FB links I found and looked promising. As I don't have a Facebook account I'm blocked from taking more than a cursory look though.
Pflegezentrum für Vogelfauna Schloß Tirol https://www.facebook.com/gufyland/ Closed for visitors until April
Greifvogelstation Berg am Irchel https://greifvogelstation.ch/ https://www.facebook.com/paneco.ch/ (PanEco is a foundation financing the Greifvogelstation - at the moment they have a short 'three memorable stories from 2024 film' (SwissGerman only, I'm afraid)
Zwergohreule ( Eurasian Scops Owl) Rare bird in their area. Only the second of its kind to 'visit' the station. Crashed into a window, suffered a traumatic brain injury. Released after 4 weeks of care
Habichtskauz (Ural Owl) They keep a bonded pair that successfully raised a clutch of 5. The young birds were released into the wild (in Austria).
Steinkauz (Little Owl) This poor bird was found in a delivery of watermelons from Tuskany. Dehydrated and malnourished but they nursed it back into superb condition and were able to release it back into the wild.
Fürstlicher Falkenhof Schloss Schillingsfürst https://www.falkenhof-schillingsfuerst.de/ https://www.facebook.com/100063568933045/
Tbc
Aww, poor Wassermelonekauz! 🥺
Finding active lists of rehabbers is quite challenging and time consuming. Even when I could get state records of license holders, as you said, many are 1 or 2 person operations with zero web presence.
This is why I quickly gave up trying to make a list on my own!
I'll check out the links you shared, they sound very promising. I also like when they're places that people can go visit, because as much info as I can bring you, it still adds so much to the experience when you can see and interact with the live owls themselves.
Got a few promising leads from the list!
I think someone recently shared some photos from Castle Tirol, as I recognized it at once when it came on screen.
I used the term Greifvogel to try to sign up for some private group feeds. Lots of hawks, but definitely some eulen.
This cutie was on the feed for Schillingsfürst:
Thank you again for the work you put in!
You give us so much, it's only fair to chip in.
And that is a very cute owl :)
Greifvogel = raptor - I guess most places that employ a falconer will be qualified to also care for owls.
You mentioned in your other comment that you like to add places where people can visit and experience the owls. I guess there aren't that many that do outside of wildlife parks.
Owls just aren't traditionally used for hunting purposes in most places. From what I've read so far, most places don't offer visits when they only rescue birds. Those birds are wild animals that will be stressed by visitors and if there's a chance to release them, the less exposure they have to humans the better for them. Same goes for the season they raise birds of their own if they're meant to be released to help the wild population.
In the US, there is separate licensing for rescues and for places that display animals. While most aren't technically open to the public, they will have events either at the facilities or surrounding areas where they will bring out animals for educational purposes. The small park by my work is not a rehab, but they do have permits to display animals that are unreleasable, and they have farm animals, but also some owls, hawks, wolves, and a bobcat among other things. The Raptor Center is about an hour from me, and they have all our local birds of prey. I'm not sure if any in the display area are releasable, as a lot of them have been there for a few of my visits, but some enclosures seem to have someone different each time. Also one of the best educational events I've seen was put on by a place that I don't think is open to the public at all, but they had a great presentation with a variety of owls, and we got to handle owl bones and feathers. All the reading I get to do tells me a lot, but being able to see behaviors in action or to feel the feathers and bones and see the scale of the anatomy really helps it all click in my head. Plus they are so cute to see and hear in person! So while they aren't all open, many present opportunities to have some interactive experience.
One thing that I know is different between Europe and America is that flight displays are not allowed here, but Suffolk Owl Sanctuary in England advertises them, and the one Eagle Owl from the one German park certainly looks like it does from the photos as well.
While being able to see them isn't a requirement for me to want to share things or encourage people to support them, if an opportunity exists to see something in person, I like to highlight it.
I've heard of a few people that have tried owl hunting, and they sound like very hard animals to motivate. We do have some raptor people at the beaches near me that partrol the seagulls that are where all the takeway food is. I usually see them with large hawks, and last time I did see it take down some gulls, but the one guy did have an Eagle Owl the one day. It was actually my first post here!