Many bird cubs die every year due to the fault of illiterate rescuers. Whether the baby will survive depends on whether the person who noticed him knows how to behave.
In the park, in the forest, at a summer cottage, a man noticed a little owlet. Our hero loves nature, therefore he cannot indifferently walk past a lonely baby. Parents abandoned the chick? Was he lost himself? Can he survive alone? Having given incorrect answers to these questions, a person makes a mistake that can become fatal for an owlet - he takes the foundling with him.
A layman will not be able to feed a chick of a bird of prey. Owlets liquid is obtained from raw meat fed by their parents. They do not eat pork, beef and poultry, which can be found in the store - owls do not hunt ungulates and chickens with turkeys, they catch rodents, insects and small birds. Before serving, the prey is not plucked and does not get rid of bones. Attempts to feed the owlet with something else will have the same result as treating a human child with hay, which a horse eats with such appetite - the baby will die in terrible agony.
Why is the owlet sitting on the ground
The owlet spends the first few weeks of life in the nest. After that, he begins to actively explore the world around him. Such chicks are called fledglings - they fly from trees on still immature wings and learn to fly, flitting over short distances. Since the flight takes up a lot of energy, and there are so many interesting things around, the fledglings study the area, moving on foot.
Parents watch their babies closely, feed them, protect them. If the foundling screams loudly, then he calls them, and does not cry from loneliness, begging the person to take him on the arms. At this point, adults can intervene by attacking a large two-legged beast that is showing an unhealthy interest in their child. If a nature lover does not notice the owlet's parents anywhere, this means that they were frightened by its size, and they are watching what is happening from the side, hoping that the person will pass by. The owl is a master of disguise and silent flight, it is not so easy to see it.
Why does an owlet not run away from a person
Having noticed a person, the owlet will most likely stop screaming and will not try to hide. If you reach out to him, he will not jump to the side, but when touched, he will close his eyes. Knowing that there are lovers of exotic pets, a bird lover may think that he met a chick that accidentally flew away from the owner. If a meeting happened in a city park, then many people have such a version. The question of how a bird, which practically does not know how to fly, was able to get out into the wild, arises extremely rarely.
The owlet realizes that he cannot escape from a large creature, which very quickly and deftly goes to him. The only salvation in such a situation will be behavior that does not attract attention - you need to freeze in place and be silent. The chick does not know what the two-legged animal eats, but somehow it does not want to lose its eyes when meeting this strange creature. When a person's hand touches a bird, it closes its eyes not from pleasure, but from fear and in order to protect the most vulnerable part of its body.
Why some mistakes can be easily fixed
Our illiterate naturalist brought the booty home, and only then found out that he had done something stupid. Now it is his duty to return the chick to nature - to carry it to the place where he found the owlet. Here the rescuer begins to be plagued by doubts: will the parents accept the baby, from whom he smells of human, have they left the place where their child is no longer there? Birds, unlike mammals, in caring for offspring are guided not by smell, but by the voice of the child. As soon as the owlet calls them, they will fly to him. Owls are territorial, they will not leave their nesting site in the next few months, especially not during the day.
There is no need to fear for the health of a small bird that has not received food for several hours. It is bad if a person has already managed to treat the baby to something tasty. But even in this case, if the owlet looks healthy and is immediately returned to nature, there will be no trouble.
Where to go if everything is really bad
There are times when it is not known exactly where the owlet was found - the children brought it, it was taken from a drunk citizen, and will find it far from the likely habitat of owls where it is in danger. There are times when a chick is taken away from domestic animals, or wounds and injuries are noticed on its body. In this case, the bird must be handed over to specialists as soon as possible, who can provide it with the conditions necessary for survival.
Contacting the nearest veterinary clinic or zoo is a waste of precious time, risking the health of your baby. Veterinarians are solely concerned with treating animals, not raising chicks. Zoos do not accept animals taken from nature without permission. Help should be sought in rehabilitation centers where the owlet will be cured, raised and prepared to return to the wild.
It's important to know
The bird should be transported in a cardboard box. Make a few holes in its wall in advance to provide ventilation for the carrier. Owls cannot be placed in cages. Unlike parrots, they do not climb thin branches, they cannot land on the cage wall without injury. A frightened owlet runs the risk of breaking its wings and breaking its head on the wire.
If it was not possible to keep within a few hours, the owlet needs to be fed. A raw chicken head is a good snack. It needs to be cut into small pieces and dipped in water, offered to the chick. It is not necessary to push a cup of water and food into the box with him.
