For owls that are superb.
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.
From Gavin McCue via International Owl Center
An incredible photo of a little Blue-gray Gnatcatcher mobbing a Barred Owl. Most birds hate owls and if they see them, they will dive bomb the owls, sometimes actually hitting their head. Photographer Gavin McCue says he just happened to be in the right place at the right time and had a very high shutter speed to capture this.
Looks so peaceful... It's funny to think this is actually not a friendly interaction at all.
I had house wrens nest on my patio this year, but they were close to the tube feeder the much larger red bellied woodpeckers frequented. The male wren would glare at the woodpeckers from my garden stakes, and as days went by, the wren got increasingly aggressive to defend his nest. When I first noticed them, I thought the wren just wanted a spot at the feeder, but it got to be very obvious as the wren started going from grabbing at the woodpecker's tail to its face. After a while, it would attack much faster after the woodpecker's arrival, and it even started smacking it with its wings to the point I could hear the smacks through the glass of my patio door.
The one day I did catch the woodpecker on top of the nest platform the wrens' nest was on. I was worried it had enough of the wren's aggression and was going to attack the nest! My presence broke up the fight, but shortly after I found the nest largely destroyed. I didn't see any signs of a fight - it was mainly the top part of the nest removed and I didn't find anything in the nest itself. There were maybe a couple feathers on the ground, but again, no signs of violence. I'm thinking/hoping that the parents made sure the babies fledged before anything could happen. What I believe are the parents still hang around, as I still hear and see house wrens hang out on the patio, so that keeps me feeling things worked out well.
Bird combat can really look innocent at times. It was sort of "cute" seeing the woodpecker come "visit" the wrens, but it probably could have easily taken out the lot of them. I've seen the Cooper's hawk stalk the feeders. I've watched the jays fight off the hawk and the crows and squirrels. I think it's easy to forget these guys are little dinosaurs having epic battles on a scale we can't appreciate because we are so big and they are so beautiful to us. It's part of what I find fascinating about nature though. I wouldn't relish the thought of going one-on-one with an emu or ostrich! They're still pretty cool to look at though!
Wow, it's really cool. Thanks for sharing this!
It looks so much like a friendly meet up
I was so thrilled to find it! I've gotten a bunch where you can tell the other bird, especially when it's a large one or another raptor, that it is a fight, but this one comes off initially as so innocent.
If you check one of my other replies in this post, I talk about my wren vs woodpecker stories from this spring, and how that initially looked playful but escalated greatly to the point I thought there may have been a retaliatory assassination!
Disney princess :)
That's what it looks like, but it's really an intense battle of wills! I suppose it's like if you had a photo of 2 people in a brawl, but you snaped that photo at a time where it looked like they were hugging with toothy grins.