From World Bird Sanctuary
With the photos we see of storm and tornado damage to human structures, it can be easy to forget the impact these weather events have on wildlife. Strong storms can have a profound impact on wildlife species, who don’t have the same shelter options we have as humans. Some of the most vulnerable species this time of year are early nesting bird species such as Great Horned Owls. The devastating storms that came through St. Louis last week brought us 6 baby Great Horned Owls who were blown from their nests in high winds.
Another group vulnerable to storms are migrating species, especially when the storm system covers a large area with high winds. Migrating species can be blown off course by the storm and find themselves in unfamiliar territory. The recent storm brought a new species to World Bird Sanctuary, a Burrowing Owl! Burrowing Owls are not native to Missouri, nor do they migrate through our area. This small owl, now patient 25-144, was found in St. Louis city, over 500 miles from the nearest point considered to be in their territory range.
25-144 was found exhausted in someone’s yard and was easily contained and brought to us by a member of our volunteer rescue group. The initial rescue call described the bird as being the size of a large potato and 144 only weighs 110g, which is small even for a Burrowing Owl. Other than being disoriented and mildly dehydrated, 144 did not sustain any injuries from his tumble in the storms. At some point in his life, 144 also sustained a radius fracture, but he healed that on his own and is currently in good body condition.
Now that 144 has had a few days rest, he is much more active. If Burrowing Owls were native to Missouri, he’d be ready to qo. We don’t want him to have to find his way back home so are working on arranging a transfer to a facility within their typical range. Burrowing Owls typically nest in loose colonies and it’s best to release them back to a colony, so we are looking to send him to a facility with that capability.
Shown is 25-144 in hand and receiving an ocular exam from our veterinarian.
If I say ‘yes’, do I get to have an owl familiar?
It’s worth a shot!
I’m not sure about the logistics of choosing a Burrowing Owl though. Without some form of elaborate portable burrow system, I don’t know how you’d be able to travel with one while spreading havoc throughout the countryside. They just seem tied to one immobile geographic location compared to other owls.
Now, if you were to limit your general mischief to your home turf, this shouldn’t be an issue, but I’m not sure if your specific scope of ambition.
Just some food for thought… 😜
So… they’re the perfect familiar to keep an eye on one’s hidden base. (It may or may not be a castle with a tower,)
Something like that sounds like optimal deployment! A large enough burrow could maintain quite the number of owl soldiers…
Joey! I wondered where you’d gone!
Uh, yes, officer, uh, that’s my owl. Right here.
*grasping motions*
Think they’d let us hang onto him as the community mascot? We can take turns caring for him over the weekend like an elementary school hamster?
As you say - worth a shot :D
Would he byte the humans if they held him another way? He looks kinda scared.
It looks like a pretty good way to hold it.
From what I’ve heard, their beaks aren’t so strong. They are pretty short and curved down and not really designed to be a weapon.
The feet are an owl’s biggest offensive and defensive tool, and you can see she has the feet very secure. They are not only very sharp, but owls have amazing grip strength.
She’s also got the wings here close to her, probably to not only let the owl feel it is held securely but not feel trapped, and also to discourage flapping around. They can use their wings to sort of punch things, and will sometimes do that, save while they’re strong enough to another bird, to a person it is just too easy for those wings to be hurt if it’s left to flap about.
I don’t hear too many owl injury stories, but people definitely do get cut by talons and beaks though it sounds fairly uncommon. I always enjoy the videos from the guy at Own Rescue Centre. So many just have him going up and just grabbing these owls very nonchalantly. 😆
Owls puff up and hiss like cats or snap their beaks to seem scary, but I haven’t come across too many actually hurting people. From all I read, they seem to avoid conflict wherever possible because even as big birds, they still seem rather fragile, and in the wild, if anything were to happen that could impede their ability to fly like an injury would, they prefer to leave rather than fight. Little birds will use this to chase the owls or other raptors off if they see them, since they usually don’t fight back even though they could easily take them on.
Even when I see them rescue babies, either taking them from a dangerous nest or replacing one that fell, they seem to maintain distance and just wait and see what happens.
It’s something I’m curious to learn more about myself.
A few nights back I look outside, and there’s the Wurstner kid, lookin up in the tree! I say what are you lookin for? He says I’m looking for my burrow owl! I say JUMPING JESUS ON A POGO STICK! Everybody knows a burrow owl lives IN A HOLE IN THE GROUND! Why the hell do you think they call it a burrow owl anyway!?
That’s him!
They call underground home, but they are still excellent little flyers and will chill up in trees to take in the scenery. So Stuart may have been on the right path all along!
I was going to share some pics here, but the upload is being goofy again. : (
The color of its eyes looks fake. Like someone used the paint can tool to fill them in. Amazing!
As big as owl eyes look from the outside, they’re even bigger inside. They take up u very large portion of their head, and are light bulbs shaped inside and if round. Due to the size and shape, they can’t move their eyes around to look different ways like we can, hence their need to twist and turn their entire head to look somewhere else.
The eyes are so big, one can sometimes see the back of the eye by looking in their ears!
It’s no wonder it’s so dark looking in there!
For some other dazzling Burrowing Owl eyes, check out these sparkly ones!
