The Tale of Two Tiny Owls
Last year, our clinic admitted the first Northern Pygmy-Owl in our organization’s history! These tiny owls occur in San Luis Obispo County, but they’re not seen very often, so it was already an exciting and unusual moment for our team. At the time, we had no idea the story was just beginning…
The pygmy-owl arrived in July after being found on the ground in Templeton. During the intake exam, our team discovered fractures to the right coracoid and clavicle, injuries consistent with a high-impact collision like hitting a car or window. After sedation for radiographs, the owl received supportive care including fluids, medication, and a body wrap to stabilize the injury. The next several weeks required cage rest while the bones began to heal. As the owl improved, it moved to a large aviary to rebuild strength and flight muscles.
Then, just a couple months after our historic patient was admitted, a SECOND Northern Pygmy-Owl patient arrived at our clinic!
This second owl had been found in the road along Highway 1 in Gorda, about 10 miles north of Ragged Point, likely hit by a car. The owl had sustained fractures to the radius and ulna in the right wing. These fractures required surgical stabilization to properly align the bones. After surgery and careful monitoring, the owl began a long process of recovery, first in a small enclosure, then gradually moving into a flight aviary to rebuild strength and coordination.
For about two weeks, the two owls shared an aviary while their stays overlapped.
Northern Pygmy-Owls are only about six inches tall, making them one of the smallest owls in North America. Despite their tiny size, they are formidable hunters. They are active during the day and feed mostly on small birds and mammals, sometimes even taking prey three times their own size. They are widespread in forests of western North America but can be difficult to spot. In SLO County, sightings are sporadic, though birders sometimes report them (and their distinctive “toot” calls) around Santa Margarita Lake, Cerro Alto, and San Simeon (source: eBird). Like all wildlife, Northern Pygmy-Owls face a variety of threats in a human-dominated landscape, including vehicle and window collisions, and, more broadly, habitat loss from high-severity wildfires, drought, and logging.
After nearly three months of care, the first owl was strong enough to return to the wild and was released back in Templeton in October. The second owl’s injuries required a longer recovery, but after nearly five months of rehabilitation was ready and was released in January back in Gorda.
For Pacific Wildlife Care, caring for two Northern Pygmy-Owls in one year was both an unexpected and a special experience. Seeing both birds return to the wild made it even more rewarding.
We couldn’t do this work without our incredible team of staff, volunteers, and community supporters. If you’d like to help make stories like this possible, you can support our work at pacificwildlifecare.org/give.
