Every year, hundreds of tawny owl and little owl chicks are found at ground level
in the countryside and picked up by humans as presumed ‘orphans’. In fact many of
these chicks are actually not orphans and are doing what we call ’branching’ - natural
behaviour where they climb amongst the branches of a tree, occasionally falling to
the ground. They are normally quite capable of getting back up into the tree very
adequately, using their wings, talons and beak to scramble up and down the tree trunk
- and all too often, the parent birds will also be very close by, keeping a watch
on their young
Rescue centres are in-undated every spring by well-meaning people with these chicks,
and it is a great strain on their resources to deal with these
un-unnecessary cases.
So the advice is ‘leave them alone’ please. If you feel that the chick is in immediate
danger, then it can be helpful to pick it up and put it up in the nearest tree. But
watch out - in the case of the tawny owl, the female may potentially attacking anything
that might be a threat to her chick - so beware and keep an umbrella handy just in
case!!
Tawny owl chicks will sit around on the ground all day
Where a chick is injured and might
need first aid, get it in the hands of specialist care as soon as possible - if it
needs food quickly, then this must be natural, unprocessed raw meat such as chick,
mice, or even rabbit, but cut into very small pieces and fed with tweezers. But do
not forget to get the bird to a vet or rescue centre as soon as possible, as feeding
by hand can ‘imprint’ the chick and once tame it will never be able to go back to
the wild, which must always be the main priority.
In the case of barn owl chicks, they do not branch and if they fall out of the nest
site they will perish if they can’t get back in, as the parents will not feed them
away from the nest. So these chicks should be picked up and returned to the nest
hole or box as soon as possible or taken to a vet if under-weight or injured.
