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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.
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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 CY Tan
Finally!
Ever since I started photographing this Buffy Fish Owl at Hampstead since 2019(?), I have always wanted to capture it flying back with an eel. It is not uncommon, and I have seen many others who have captured this, but I am always unable to be there when it happens. Finally, I am able to capture this today!
537pm, 5 July 2026
Returning again with a second eel. What a hunter!
Me driving home with my drive-thru order like the fierce hunter I was born to be.
But seriously, great pictures!
I can never make it home without pinching a fry or two...for...uhhh...quality control purposes. 😇
I'm glad you like the photos!
I've been trying not to unload too many Buffy family photos on you guys. Poppa is such the mighty hunter, Momma's got adorable curly 50s hair, and Baby is charming in that weird baby bird way. There seems to be a pretty big group of people photographing them, so I see a bunch every day. We certainly voted in a popular Owl of the Year!
Eels aren't usually even by the surface are they? How does this happen and twice in a day?
I tried looking this up again. Finding fish owls hunting seems to be pretty difficult, and I found a clip of one hunting a fish, but not an eel. I did come across a few Youtube Shorts of people using a few different methods of hunting eels by hand in the shallows which could explain a few things. One person was pulling them out from under rocks along the waterline. Another was in mud that was a little soupier than a thin pudding/gravy and he would grab them as they stuck their heads out of the mud to breathe.
I also watched a video of a person somewhere near me fishing for them with a small fishing pole in a shallow creek off the Delaware River. I'm not certain how similar American eels are to Asiatic ones, but I imagine they have some similarities. He said they are mostly nocturnal and they hide under rocks during the day. He said they are able to hide in surprisingly small spaces, so deep water doesn't seem to be a necessity for them. He also mentioned they migrate to the sea to breed, and they can cross land to do so, so they can be on land for a fair bit of time compared to a fish. They seem to have poor sight, which may also make them easy to grab.
I can share the Shorts if you'd like to see them, but I know some people hate Shorts, or I can capture some images. There is also a short Nat Geo video of a Buffy catching a small fish if you'd like to see that. Just let me know.
Also, if you look at the community banner, I try to find something supposedly representative of the environment where the Owl of the Year lives, and with it being the Buffy this year, I tried to find a forested Thai creek where it looked like it would be a place where an owl could snag some freshwater snackies.
One last fact the American guy said that I'm curious to look into more: he said the eel blood is poisonous to humans. I forget if that is just fresh blood or if it's still poisonous after it's cooked, but he said to be cautious of that. It's supposedly the eel that's used in sushi, so I've eaten a ton of it, so that sounds like something that would be fun to know more about.
I hope some of this was helpful, and like I said, if you want some videos or screen grabs, let me know and I can get you those after my work settles down a bit.
If you like hearing about dedicated bird data, don't miss today's story over at c/animals about a condor dad who was ready to lay down his life to protect his nest after a tragedy struck.
Think i might have seen this guy on the Heath a few times.
Bird is the word!
Ooo..."heath" is a new word for me.