Count the feetses!
Superbowl
For owls that are superb.
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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.
They have 4 toes per footsie, but the outer back one can swing up front to trick you. Or they can tuck a foot up in their floof. They are sneaky! 😄
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Oh that's not a mirror?
No smoke and mirror tricks here, just pure owl opulence!
Why is my guy rocking the punk rock pink there?
It's at its rebellious state of growing up.
They just want to know who's hoo, so they'll get a splash of color when they're housed together. We track weights on all our patients to make sure everyone is eating right, or that one may require some type of specific care, so they'll mark that one so they're being consistent with tracking and treatment.
If they're similar in size/shape/color, especially with something like an owl that can shrink/stretch, or puff out its feathers, it removes any question which owl it is you're observing.
I haven't seen any birds dyed at my place yet, but for the squirrels where we had up to 6 in the same house, they each got a dab of nail polish on the outside of the right ear. It's usually pretty distinct, though they used purple and black (blended into the fur sometimes if they were darker ears) and blue and green (the shades they had were a bit too similar for me, esp when they started to flake off) and it let us know as soon as we grabbed them if they were eating, pooping, had lice, had aggression, etc so we were ready to double check or deal with anything specific.
With the birdies, the head is a good place to mark them because those feathers don't have as much function as most of the other visible spots, like flight or tail feathers.
Neat, thanks!
Also it just looks cool. Dude probably requested it.