Some Familiar Faces Return

It is time once again for us to start receiving eastern screech owls by the dozens as concerned residents of Miami and surrounding areas bring them to us at the Miami Science Museum in Coconut Grove. There are numbers listed to the left of this post to guide anyone in South Florida on who to call in the event you find baby birds, owl or otherwise. Most of these centers are extremely busy this time of year and may have important recorded information that may answer your questions or guide you to other resources that may help. Please do not hang up when you hear the recording, we will return your message. For more information on rescuing baby birds, please visit http://www.redhawksister.com/howtorescuebabies.htm If you are not from South Florida, I will be happy to assist you in finding a rehabilitator in your area. Please leave a comment at the bottom of the post.

Eastern screech owls are the most frequently admitted raptor at our center. Last year we saw 80 screech owls, 50 of them being "orphans." But what constitutes an orphan? Many times people rescue a baby bird thinking that there are no parents around, or they are afraid that the parents will "smell the human" on their young and reject it. This is NOT true! Birds have a very poor sense of smell and do not identify their young by smell. In fact, birds will quite often feed a gaping mouth of their own species regardless of whether it is their own. That's why we are very fortunate at the Miami Science Museum.

The adult screech owl, Lucille is not this baby's parent. Lucille is a former patient who has raised well over a hundred babies in the 5 years since my employ at the center. She is an imprint, raised by humans when she herself was a baby. Because of her lack of exposure to her own kind she was unequipped to survive in the wild. The parenting instinct, however, proved to be overwhelmingly natural for her, so she has served her foster lings well, giving them a chance to be returned to the wild in as natural of a behavioral state as possible. The babies are also socialized in an outdoor secluded area with other adults, prior to their release.

You can read more about our orphaned screech owl program at http://www.redhawksister.com/screechowl_rehab.htm