this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
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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.
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oh my bad i thought zygodactyl was a taxonomic group lol
also according to wikipedia the closest relatives to owls are new world vultures, hawks, ospreys, and secretary birds:
falcons are pretty close relatives to parrots, so i think i misremembered and that's one of the reasons i thought parrots and owls were closely related
nightjars are more closely related to potoos and frogmouths, and those 3 seem to just be species that convergently evolved to be like owls (or at least look like them)
My brain cries when I try to stare at all that Latin, but everything I search for about owls closest relatives has always returned the nightjars. I saw a few things saying the hawk/falcon relation was outdated, but genetics are revealing a bunch of surprises and causing lots of recasting of who's related to who.
I like them all no matter who they're related to! 😄