“He was like, ‘What is that?’”
Earlier this month, a homeowner in Columbia, Pennsylvania, was heading into his basement when he spotted something odd perched on the stairs — a tiny, fluffy bundle that looked almost too strange to identify at first.
As he moved closer, he realized the little puffball was actually a baby great horned owl.
Knowing the young bird needed help, he quickly brought the owlet to Raven Ridge Wildlife Center. There, staff examined the owl and found that the baby was underweight and dehydrated, so they immediately began giving lifesaving fluids.
For wildlife rehabilitators, caring for young owls comes with an important rule: they need to be raised around their own species whenever possible, so they do not become attached to humans in an unhealthy way. With that in mind, Tracie Young, founder of Raven Ridge, wanted to find the baby an owl guardian as soon as it was stable enough.
Fortunately, the center had recently taken in an injured adult female great horned owl. She had been rescued after getting her wing caught in an electric fence around a chicken coop. While examining her, Young noticed something important — the owl had a brood patch on her belly, a sign that she had likely been caring for eggs or chicks not long before.
That discovery gave Young hope. She thought the adult’s mothering instincts might be strong enough that she would accept the orphaned baby.
The plan worked immediately.
As soon as the baby owl was placed near her, the adult welcomed it and quickly became protective. The little owlet moved close to her at once, and the pair bonded almost right away.
Not long after that, Raven Ridge received two more orphaned baby great horned owls. Since the female had accepted the first one so naturally, Young decided to try introducing the newcomers as well. Once again, the adult owl responded with instant care, and before long all three babies had become part of the same adopted family.
The center then moved the mother owl and her three young charges into an outdoor enclosure so they could begin adjusting to a more natural setting. With their foster mother there to guide them, the babies are learning behaviors that human caretakers could never teach as effectively.
Young says the older babies have already started perching on small logs, clearly trying to imitate their adoptive mother.
Raven Ridge plans to release all four owls together. That way, once they are back in the wild, the mother can continue teaching the young owls essential survival skills like hunting and independence — and remain close by as they learn.