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US Wild Animal Rescue Database: Animal Help Now

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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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Plumage Variations, Morphs, or Phases (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago by anon6789 to c/superbowl

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From Rich Hoeg

Plumage Variations, Morphs, or Phases. All three terms describe feather color differences in birds, and this case specifically owls.

In the 1st image you are viewing a Great Horned Owl (GHO) adult and owlet. The parent has an "Arctic Phase' coloration to its feathers, which is very white. The photo was taken during June of 2023 in Alberta.

Arctic Phase Great Horned Owls tend to live well north in Canada where the white coloration helps with camouflage during the snowy season.

We now move south for a "Desert or Southwest Phase" GHO which I watched hunt in Arizona's Sonoran desert late yesterday afternoon. Its grayish white colors help blend in with the desert habitat.

Finally we move to NE Minnesota. This GHO has a more common "Boreal Forest Phase". This particular owl has nested near my home for the past six years. Its brownish gray coloration helps the bird blend in with the white pine in which it is perched.

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[–] homesweethomeMrL 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Wow - how long does it take for a GHO to develop a color matching their environment?

[–] anon6789 2 points 3 months ago

It seems to be a speciation based on what is more effective coloration based on their environment and foliage types. That wiki entry goes into the types of speciation, which is something I haven't read about before. It seems there are 4 types based on how far they diverge and get isolated from the original species.

This article I found goes more specifically into the GHO specific color divergences. As a heads up warning, there are non-living museum specimens as most of the example photos in the article. They are pretty good ones as far as preserved birds go, but they are very obviously inanimate now if that is something you don't wish to see.

I've seemingly got some type of eye infection so I can't really read either article now, but they both look good, and I'll have to come back to them myself.