10/11/2026
We posted on Friday about the 4 orphan Eastern Screech Owlets that we released earlier in the week. We thought you might want to hear about one in particular. This one was an especially difficult case because of its age. We estimated it as being 2 days old when the tree he was nesting in was chopped down. It was a dead tree and the nest was very high up, no one knew there was a nest. There were two owlets, one did not survive the fall. The second was brought to Soarin Hawk, weighing in at 30 grams (which is 1.06 oz).
One of our volunteers brought the tiny owlet and an incubator home so he could be fed every two-to-three hours. Eventually, the "egg-tooth" fell off his beak. His eyes remained closed for nearly another week, but then little eye slits appeared. Then gearing up with face masks and feeding puppets; owl sounds were played and the little one got stronger, bigger and healthier. Once he was down to "only" three feedings a day, he was able to go to Soarin' Hawk and was cared for by our ICU crews.
It is a true challenge caring for these young birds. Our goal is to release them into the wild. Having one from such a young age made the challenge even tougher but once this little owlet was eating on his own and getting ready to fly, we put him in a pen with our other orphan screeches. Learned to fly together, hunt together and be wild together.
Maybe tears were shed by us when they were released but this is what we do.
