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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.
Community Rules:
Posts must be about owls. Especially appreciated are photographs (not AI) and scientific content, but artwork, articles, news stories, personal experiences and more are welcome too.
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AI is discouraged. If you feel strongly that the community would benefit from a post that involves AI you may submit it, but it might be removed if the moderators feel that it is low-effort or irrelevant.
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From World Center for Birds of Prey
Oliver, our Verreaux's Eagle-owl, is Avian Ambassador of the Month!
Oliver was hatched in 2018 and raised here at the World Center for Birds of Prey, though they are native to sub-Saharan Africa. He is an incredible showman and showcases the excellent capabilities of an owl, such as silent flight.
Come and see him for yourself! He is currently on exhibit in our courtyard, and he is often in one of our daily programs at 11am, 1pm, or 3pm.
The trend of surprising results continues, with Burrowing Owl getting ousted by the Boreal Owl! A narrow 2 point lead pushed the little puff ball to the top. I continue to be baffled by Burrowing's lack of success.
I'm not going to be running the games today, though i had originally planned to. I went to the state wildlife rehabbers conference yesterday not knowing what to expect. I had to leave at 5am to get there, and was prepared to be out of there when lectures even at 5pm and then prep Owl of the Year.
But when I get there, I almost immediately run into the entire crew from my shift at the clinic! It was so fun to actually see everyone outside of work where we could talk and have fun without cleaning poop and chopping carnivore food and catching runaway animals, and we were all dressed nice and looked like presentable human beings 😀
We all got to tell lots of funny stories, and all our clinics directors were there, and they want me to mentor next year's trainees and do an owl presentation for the spring open house event. It was nice to get to share a lot of thoughts and ideas about how to get the clinic operating smoother as a new person and going over some of the challenges I had as a first year volunteer.
I ended up staying until 10 instead of 5 so I didn't get home until midnight, so I sadly ran out of time to make today's games. They will be back tomorrow though!
Sadly there was nothing about owls or much about raptors in general at the conference, but lots of great stuff I got to attend. A few classes on clinic efficiency and training new volunteers, a ton about squirrel care, diagnosing and treating lead poisoning, testing for internal parasites in wild dogs, gps tracking released wild and captive raised birds, and more.
It was so much fun, and now I wish I would have attended all 3 days. Coming back is already on my mind for next year!
Oh and I got to meet people that we've talked about here! There was a lady from The Raptor Trust in New Jersey, and I am a huge fan of them and have visited them about half a dozen times. There were people from Tamarack, who were the ones that cared for the baby GHO that survived a 100 foot drop from a bridge. There were people from the University of Minnesota Raptor Center, that we've shared a ton of stories from. Such a great time!
That’s really cool, dude, glad you had a great time!
Thank you! Volunteering has been one of the more challenging but most rewarding things I've ever done. I've already met so many wonderful people and gotten to work with some amazing animals. I can't wait to see what all next year has in store.
Wow, that's so awesome. Being at a conference with a bunch of people you know is the best, it's so much different than attending when you don't know anyone.
It was my first conference of any kind, and it's been 2+months since I've seen any of the clinic people, so I had no idea who was going to be there other than the clinic director giving a presentation, so I had gone with the expectation of just taking notes by myself all day.
But right when I pulled in I ran into my shift supervisor, the bunny lady, and then the clinic head, and she said her daughter, who was my partner in crime as a fellow first year, was going to be there too, so I got so pumped up right away.
It was also really great to hear that the director and some of the board had been thinking of me for further opportunities. Being new, I didn't really know if I'd stood out, I just tried my best and made sure I was reliable about being there, but they all spent a lot of time talking and listening to me, and that felt great.
The guy in charge of animal ed also said since a few nearby rescues to us were getting Snowies this year, so he made sure if we got one I'd get notified immediately! 😊
Yeah, in any group I've been a part of, reliability is really important and will help to get you noticed. Just out of curiosity, do the clinic people know about your activities on !superbowl@lemmy.world?
I've talked about it a little, but like with most normies, they kinda glaze over when it gets to the Lemmy aspect of things.
I did show them some of the Owl of the Year yesterday and the ones that saw it seemed to think it was cool, but seemed to lose some interest that they would have to sign up to vote, so I don't know if we will be seeing them any time soon...
The previous OotY charity tiles are still hanging in the office as far as I'm aware and that has the website on it, so they could have looked any time they wanted.
Ah well, I'm not in this for the fame ☺️
If I have the online me separate from the real me, that's not the worst thing. You guys are still just as special in my opinion and if not for your support here, I would have kept missing out on volunteering, so they wouldn't have me there now. I certainly don't hide my presence here from them, we're just still too niche or something.
I probably share more about them here than I should sometimes, so there is that perk of them not coming here!
That's interesting. To be fair, I never sign in to youtube or tubi, even if it means I don't get to see the video.
I pointed a couple IRL friends to my "high signal" feed, but I don't think any of them checked it out more than once!
Yeah, I probably would have not bothered either had I needed to sign up another account to see something of theirs. But I was glad they seemed to like it anyway. They already get more than enough owl stuff than they want from me already, I'm sure!
Argh, another heartbreaker. This is what we call a rebuilding year I guess.
Love Oliver! How great to have an ambassador from the Savannah to teach everyone about awesomenosity!
This is a pretty odd OotY so far! You guys usually give me a few surprises, but this thing has been all over the place. I have no idea how this is going to play out, and I feel the top left quarter of the bracket is insanely tough right now. The other 3 are full of wildcards now, so I have no clue what to expect there.