Injured Barn Owl Needs Clear Forecast to Fly

“Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head” … and keep fallin’ and fallin’.  This barn owl wishes the April showers would let up just for a few days. She’s been biding her time for more than a month, waiting to be released back to the wild. If the rain doesn’t stop soon, she may need to hitch a ride with Noah.

The sun was shining, though, early one morning in February, when Michael Layman, a San Martin resident on his way to work, was startled to see a barn owl lying weakly by the doorway.  Since the Gilroy store is near a highway, it’s likely that the bird had flown into a passing vehicle during its nighttime hunting foray, and was in too much pain and shock to fly home.  

Upon being lifted off the ground, the owl revived enough to fly away, but apparently it was still in a daze and flew straight into a nearby store window, causing further trauma to its body.  Michael once again rescued the owl, this time carrying it to his car and rushing it to the Animal Care Center for emergency care. The adult, female owl was very badly bruised and suffering from a concussion.

It is extremely difficult to determine the extent of a bird’s pain. In the wild, any show of pain or disability can attract predators, thus wild birds have evolved to “suffer in silence.” However, when this barn owl was being examined at WERC, staff found that the bird vocalized in such an unusual way that it was apparent she was in a great deal of pain from her bruised body, though she was handled as gently as possible.

After one week of being treated with pain medication and undergoing intensive care at WERC, and after much of her pain and swelling had lessened, the owl was brought to Princevalle Pet Hospital in Gilroy for X-rays to verify that there were no further injuries. The owl was moved into WERC’s large outdoor aviary for flight time to build up her strength. After two months of recuperation, she is flying beautifully and fattening up on six mice a day. It’s time for her to return home. 

The problem is that WERC needs a five-day clear weather forecast to ensure the owl’s best chance of getting her bearings and finding food and shelter. If she were a duck, this would be ideal weather and she’d be singing (or more accurately, screeching) in the rain, but a barn owl needs soft, dry feathers for optimal, nocturnal silent hunting. 

Nature’s supreme flying mousetrap, a barn owl can catch more than 500 small rodents a year, hunting around human habitats and large fields. Once the rain goes away, she’ll be flying free in the sky, catching her own mice and finding herself a handsome mate. As the end of the song goes, “Because I’m free, nothin’s worryin’ me.”

WERC thanks Dr. John Quick, of Animal Care Center (Morgan Hill) and Dr. Suzanne Colbert of Princevalle Pet Hospital (Gilroy) for their care and treatment of the barn owl.

WERC, the Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center, provides the community with rehabilitation services for orphaned, injured and sick native wildlife. Through its educational programs, WERC encourages a peaceful coexistence between civilization and our native wildlife. To contact WERC call (408) 779-9372 or visit www.werc-ca.org.