Owlet Reunite – 1st of 2025
March feels early to be organizing raptor reunites, but when these two fluffy Great Horned Owlets were rescued and brought to the Wildlife Hospital, WildCare's Raptor Reunite Team (RRT) sprang into action!
After noticing they’d been sitting alone in the same place for more than a day, the Novato residents called WildCare’s after-hours e-line for advice. With the help of a Marin Humane officer, the babies were rescued and brought straight to the home of Melanie Piazza, WildCare’s Director of Animal Care, who was in the middle of a meeting with WildCare’s e-line volunteer crew, including the operator whose assistance made it possible to get these babies to safety!
Melanie completed a full medical exam on both owlets and discovered, as is often the case with baby raptors, that these two had not injured themselves in their tumble to the ground.
As most of our readers know, it is a MYTH that a wild bird will reject her baby if a human has touched him. Wild birds, including Great Horned Owls will accept their babies back into the nest and continue to care for them, as long as the babies are healthy and not cold.
**Please NEVER attempt to reunite a wildlife baby of any species without expert advice!**
Call WildCare's Living with Wildlife Hotline at 415-456-7283.
Any fallen baby bird should receive a check-up in the Wildlife Hospital, but with a clean bill of health, birds of most species may be returned to their parents' care.
Our Raptor Reunite Team successfully reunited 34 baby hawks and owls in 2024, and the early start to this season indicates they'll be busy again this spring.
A successful reunite begins with a reconnaissance mission to determine if the parent birds are still near the nest.
In this situation, WildCare was greatly assisted by these owlets' rescuers, Matt and Mina, who pay close attention to the wildlife in their yard, and had heard the male and female owls calling for weeks.
Disturbingly, they had found the remains of an adult Great Horned Owl in the driveway the previous day, so the WildCare team was concerned that one of the owlets' parents had been killed, drastically diminishing their odds of survival.
The RRT put together a plan to return the owlets to the nest, to monitor for sights and sounds of the parent owls, and then to bring the owlets back down two days later to weigh them. If the owlets had gained weight, we would know they were being fed. If they hadn't, we would bring them back to the Wildlife Hospital to grow up in care.
With our two most experienced and invaluable tree climbers unavailable, WildCare's RRT was lucky to reach recreational tree climbing instructor Sam Johnson, who was more than happy to attempt the reunite.
Sam came to the job with a wealth of tree climbing knowledge, but no familiarity with how to handle birds of prey. In this photo, Director of Animal Care, Melanie Piazza is instructing Sam in how to properly handle the owlets.
Hanging from a harness high in a tree and reaching into a box full of sharp talons isn't for the faint of heart, but Melanie coached Sam in the right combination of gentleness and firmness in their test run, and soon he was ready to climb.
See photos from the reunite below.
That evening, rescuers Matt and Mina reported hopeful news -- they had heard both a male and a female Great Horned Owl calling in the vicinity of the nest tree.
Two nights later RRT members met under the tree and Sam climbed to the nest again, placed the owlets in a box, and lowered them down for a weight check.
Great news! Both owlets had gained significant weight! Clearly the parents were feeding them!
Sam snapped this photo before descending the tree, leaving this Great Horned Owl family to grow up healthy and wild.
Congratulations to Sam and all of WildCare's Raptor Reunite Team on their first successful reunite of 2025!