From World Bird Sanctuary
Which of us needs help? 3 of these 5 baby Great Horned Owls are injured, 2 are not. Can you tell which is which? Put your guesses in the comments!
Baby season has started with our first calls about baby Great Horned Owls. A baby's best chance at a long and successful life in the wild is if they are raised by their parents, so we want to make sure they only come into our care if they actually need it. The first step in this process is to ask the caller to send us a picture of the baby they've found.
A photo can help identify numerous factors that would indicate if the animal needs help or not, but even as experienced professionals, we are not always able to discern this from just a photo. If looking at the photo is not definitive, our next step will be to ask questions about the bird's behavior to further assess. We may also ask for additional photos or videos. If we are still unable to tell if the baby needs help or not, we'll send a team out to do a field exam. If the baby is healthy, we leave it in a safe spot for the parents to continue caring for. If it is injured, it then comes back to the hospital with us for care.
If you find wildlife (babies or adults) on the ground, it's important to contact a licensed rehabilitator right away to see if it needs help. Don't wait to see if it's still there in a few hours or recovers on its own. When an animal does need help, the difference of an hour or two can be the difference between life and death. As you can see from these photos, it can be very difficult to tell just by looking at an animal if it is injured or not. An experienced professional will be able to assess the situation and determine the best course of action. We would much rather receive more calls about animals that end up not needing help rather than receive animals when it is now too late to save them.
We'll post the answer tomorrow to which of these 5 are actually injured and which 2 are healthy.
Let's see those guesses, c/superbowl!
remindme! 3 days
2 and 5 look like YOU'RE gonna need help soon, unless you get away from these grumpy fellas 😅
They're still small compared to the adults, but they're still big enough to be intimidating.
This owl looks smaller than any of the 5 examples,and just look at those feet already!
My first baby GHO experience was meeting one like number 3 here. That's a good bit bigger than the other 4, and puffed up like that, they're spreading out that 4-5 foot (100-150 cm) wingspan, and start hissing and snapping their beak at you, it makes you pay attention!
It makes me go “let’s just be cool, Kay?” And back away slowly.
If they're putting baby in a new nest, that means there's probably an upset momma and poppa owl eyeing him up while he does this too.
No pressure while you're up on that tall ladder holding and angry, spikey baby! 🫣