All birds of prey are experts in hiding illnesses and injury as a survival tactic to be unnoticed by other predators and animals – which can make it quite tricky to discern the cause of an issue when a bird is brought into the hospital.
This Barn Owl was found face down in a field by a concerned landowner, thinking it was deceased. It was gently moved until it was noticed a foot was still moving. It was then wrapped up in a dry towel and brought into the warm where it was then transferred to us.
Knowing the condition it was found in, we were expecting to either see a bad injury or severe emaciation or disease to cause this amount of visible exhaustion, which is sadly a very common sight in Barn Owls. Surprised to say on initial inspection there were no obvious signs of trauma or disease. The body was well muscled, and aside from looking a bit bedraggled, looked in good health!
It was only on closer inspection we noticed a very small area that could point to an area of injury. Can you see it??
It looks small, but in the parted feathers, a slight pink tinge gave away an area of trauma that caused a small bleed – otherwise unnoticed under all the feathers!
As the feathers were parted further it was evident this Barn Owl had suffered an impact due to the level of bruising there was around the chest and body. Bruising appears as bright green on birds, due to the underlying yellow colour of the skin, and heavy bruising appears almost black!
Without close inspection this clear indication of trauma could have been missed very easily – now it was evident this Barn Owl likely suffered a nasty car clip whilst in flight, it can be treated with the appropriate care for recovery.
Needless to say he was very lucky, albeit having a bit of a headache.
This lucky Barn Owl will be cared for in our Raptor Hospital to recover from his injuries, before being taken back to where he was found for release.