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From Dick van Duijin

A little owl perched on a fence, looking back at the camera - in Belgium.

From Hope for Wildlife

This tiny Saw-whet owl arrived a week ago after being found on the ground, unable to fly and being harassed by crows. After we examined her we found that she had a bit of an injury to her left eye, so we suspect she flew into a window and ended up being stunned by the impact. She's still resting up in our ICU.

Did you know that these little owls will store excess food in the niches and hollows of trees and branches, creating a "frozen cache"? When a hunt fails and they get hungry, they will go to their freezer, take some food out, and actually sit on the frozen carcasses to thaw them out in the same way they'd incubate an egg!

From Kevin Griffin

Great Horned Owl and her Owlets

From Jen Marie

I think these adorable baby screech owls enjoyed people watching as much as we enjoyed watching them from several springtimes ago. These little owls are only about 7 inches tall when full-grown and are primarily solitary, except during the breeding season.

From Paul Bankowitsch

Baby Snowy Owl

From Sean Pollock

This Northern Pygmy Owl was a welcomed incidental find. Such amazing little owls. Amazingly fast and incredibly cute.

From Krzysztof Baranowski

Ryukyu scops owl (Otus elegans) with a focused look. Japan, 7/2025

Canon R5 Mk II

RF 400mm 2.8

1/80s, F2.8 ISO800

The Ryuku Scops, or the Elegant Owl, is from the Ryuku Islands, which are found between Taiwan and Kyushu, Japan.

I couldn't find too much on this little owl other than it's mainly an insectivore.

Leaf-rolling Cricket, its favorite meal.

Bush Cricket, another favorite.

This data sheet has the finer details, but the most interesting fact in there isn't about the owl so much as it is a tree.

The environment of Minami- daito Island has been modified so greatly and so many species have been introduced that little of the original environment remains in the island. As a result, four en- demic subspecies of birds be- came extinct, but Ryukyu Scops Owls have survived. It is Casuarina introduced to the island that played a key role in conserving the population of Ryukyu Scops Owls.

Casuarina equisetifolia

Since Casuarina grows quickly, it was planted for hardening the soil of a marsh and as a shelterbelt after deforestation. In addition, Casuarina tends to form a cavity in it. Research showed that introduced Casuarina had 15 times as many cavities as native Livistona, which Ryukyu Scops Owls principally used as a nest tree before deforestation. As mentioned above, therefore, they mostly nest in the cavities of Casuarina now (Photo. 4)

A strange case of an invasive species benefiting an evaluated local one! Because the owls need holey trees for protection and nesting, this one works out even better than native trees.

While restoring natural environments is an important goal, things like this show that process can be complicated at times.

From Blue Ridge Wildlife Center

This Great-horned owl came into our center with blood in the mouth and with bruising on parts of his body. This patient's mucous membranes were very pale and the owl was in very poor body condition.

When we took a blood sample, the blood did not clot for over ten minutes! The pale membranes, ongoing bleeding, and excessive bruising are all signs we see commonly in cases of anticoagulant rodenticide (AR) toxicity.

As the name implies, ARs kill by preventing the normal clotting of blood. This means small injuries that might normally lead to a bruise (or less) can now cause an animal to bleed to death. It is not a humane way to die for the intended targets nor for the predators that eat those victims.

AR toxicity is not uncommon in wildlife. In fact, studies on multiple species of raptors have shown that nearly 100% have subclinical levels of these poisons in their blood and tissues. In 2021, a study on over 200 bald eagles revealed that 83% of those samples had detectable AR levels.

Although rodenticide toxicity is considered the primary cause of death in only 4% of these cases, the impacts of subclinical levels are not well studied. As we commonly see in individuals with subclinical lead levels, who almost all come to us as trauma cases, we highly suspect that these subclinical levels of AR toxicity predispose many of these animals to potentially fatal injury.

Studies that have specifically looked for rodenticides in non-target wildlife have found it with alarming frequency - over 70% of animals tested in multiple studies. A study from Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University showed 100% of the Red- tailed Hawks tested between 2017-2019 had detectable levels of anticoagulant rodenticides with 91% of these hawks having two or more types of rodenticide detected.

Sadly, these poisons are sold over-the-counter and advertised as a way to rid your home of unwanted rodents. What sellers don't tell you is that this is a horrible way to die for the intended victims and it will harm or kill unintended targets, including your pets and wildlife.

To make matters worse, they don't tell you that killing the individual pests will not solve your problem. Until you figure out how those pests are entering and make corrections/repairs to close off those entry ways and secure food sources, more rodents will continue to use that space. The wildlife in your area will continue to find the rodents as they are dying (which makes them very easy and desirable prey). It is an endless cycle of death that you can spend money on forever and it still does not keep rodents out of your home.

Thankfully, this Great-horned owl has had a good response to the first few days of therapy. We are administering higher doses of vitamin K to help support clotting, and providing fluid and nutritional support. Due to the emaciation, this bird was started on an easily-digestible liquid diet and has since been upgraded to eating whole prey.

It is our responsibility as good stewards of environmental health to make sure we are reducing our negative impacts on wildlife. Although we know that pest species can cause significant damage, using humane alternatives in our homes is imperative if we want their predators and a healthy natural food web to continue to help manage wild rodent populations.

Here's a shot of this patient's mouth, and you can easily see it looks unhealthy.

This young GHO both demonstrates a healthy owl mouth, which should look much like ours, at least as far as color goes, and also my face when I read stories like this.

The remaining pics are more of the owl's evaluation.

Snowy owls that once glided across wide open spaces of the Arctic tundra are seeing their homes shrink under thickening shrubs, and face a gauntlet of other threats from vanishing prey to deadly collisions, all of which decimate their numbers. Meanwhile, the raptor’s path to legal protection moves at a sluggish pace.

From CBC News

The number of snowy owls that glide above the Arctic tundra is in alarming decline as the birds face a gauntlet of threats. Yet the raptor’s path to legal protection moves at a sluggish pace.

The iconic birds of the North are threatened by habitat loss as ground cover becomes thicker and prey becomes more difficult to find. Collisions with vehicles, buildings and power poles during migration are also causing numbers to dwindle.

The bird’s population is around 14,000 and dropping at more than 30 per cent per decade.

It was assessed as threatened because of the “steepness of the decline in its numbers,” said Syd Cannings, a retired biologist who served on the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

A scientific assessment of declining population does not automatically trigger legal protection. Researchers, federal, Indigenous and local governments carry out extensive consultations on conservation efforts after a species is deemed threatened – a process that can stretch on for two years or more.

But the clock starts even earlier where the committee’s scientists spend at least two years studying data to determine a species’ status, leaving the animals – in this case the snowy owl – vulnerable for years before conservation actions can take effect.

It can take two years or more in the North from the time an animal or bird is assessed as being threatened to being formally listed under federal law, Cannings said.

“It takes so long because the government is being, I guess, very careful,” he said. “They don't want to just say, ‘OK, boom. It's threatened,’ because that has an effect on people.”

The snowy owl, Cannings said, is an umbrella species and an indicator of environmental health, so if the bird is in trouble then other flora and fauna is not doing well either.

Consultation is underway, says federal government

The committee meets twice a year – in the spring and late fall – but the federal environment minister is given a copy of the report just once a year, Cannings said. Then the minister then takes it to cabinet, which makes the final decision.

“It takes a lot longer than a lot of us would like.”

The committee’s assessment is the first step in a multi-step process under the Species at Risk Act, said Eleni Armenakis, spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada, in an email.

The committee gave the environment minister its assessment of the snowy owl on Oct. 16, she added.

The minister responded on Jan. 16 by extending consultation timelines to meet land claims obligations, Armenakis said. “This consultation is underway.”

The main threat faced by the bird is a gradual change in its habitat brought on by a warming world, Cannings said.

Global threat causing decline in Arctic birds

The snowy owl, Cannings said, is an umbrella species and an indicator of environmental health, so if the bird is in trouble, then other flora and fauna are not doing well either.

Snowy owls are found across the treeless Arctic tundra where they mostly feed on lemmings and ducks. But they are also known for travelling great distances and are among the most nomadic of birds, moving around widely in search of food.

The main threat faced by the bird is a gradual change in its habitat brought on by a warming world, Cannings said.

“So many places it used to nest are now covered in shrubs,” he said. “It's losing all its productive lemming hunting grounds at the southern edge of the Arctic tundra. And the owls are having fewer and fewer places to nest.”

Other threats facing the snowy owl include avian flu, with data compiled by Canadian Food Inspection Agency showing at least 15 cases since 2021.

They are also hit by vehicles as they go down south from their homes, collide with buildings, get electrocuted by power lines or are poisoned from eating prey exposed to rodent poison.

“There is no single smoking gun to say what is actually causing the decline in these bird numbers,” Cannings said.

“Unfortunately, in this case, it isn't something like stopping hunting or, or something simple … that people can decide either on their own or the government can decide to do something to help. This is a more complicated thing. It's a global threat.”

Sea ice is changing rapidly and unpredictably, and lemming populations naturally rise and fall in dramatic cycles — both of which influence snowy owl populations in ways that are well beyond human control, Eckert said.

'This link to the far North is part of our culture'

Cameron Eckert, director of the Yukon Bird Club, said the “perplexing question” surrounding a species like the snowy owl is what steps should be taken for its conservation.

Sea ice is changing rapidly and unpredictably and lemming populations naturally rise and fall in dramatic cycles — both of which influence snowy owl populations in ways that are well beyond human control, he said.

Even as the government works to cut greenhouse gas emissions, climate change is already having more pronounced impacts on biodiversity, he added.

He said the snowy owl has a charisma that resonates with people in a way many other species don’t.

“It carries this idea of a bird traveling all the way from the High Arctic to southern Canada for the winter,” he said. “This link to the far North is part of our culture.”

From Louise Johns

The reflection of snow covered ground in her eyes -- a heavy cropped photo.

Barred Owl
1/6/26
Ohio

From Tyler Hartung

Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have." - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Fierce, silent, and ever so tiny, the Northern Saw-whet Owl is a force to be reckoned with. Highly nocturnal, these owls spend their days roosting in dense foliage, perfectly camouflaged among the trees, which is exactly where I found this little guy.

Nap time was clearly non-negotiable, but after a long night of hunting, it was more than well deserved. Even the wisest creatures know when it's time to pause. Slow down. Rest your mind. Turn inward. You don't always have to be productive to be worthy, sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is recharge.

From Cynthia Rand

Eastern Screech Owl awake and alert after resting throughout the day inside its cavity ~ now ready for a night of hunting.