From World Bird Sanctuary

Foster parents are an important part of raising injured and orphaned babies to be successful once released into the wild. Foster parents provide an adult model for both what the baby looks like and how they should behave. Sayyida, our Barred Owl foster, is one of our most attentive parents. She is especially fond of the younger babies that still need to snuggle up to her for warmth. She was brooding her current batch of chicks within an hour of being introduced to them.

While Sayyida is very attentive to brooding young chicks and preening them, she doesn’t always feed all of them, especially when she starts managing a larger number of babies. To make sure all our babies are still getting enough food to meet their growing bodies’ needs, we will still provide hand feedings while wearing camo gear to avoid them seeing humans associated with food. Feeding time is a lot scarier with Sayyida standing guard, but she usually allows us to feed without doing more than posture defensively at us.

Sayyida is nonreleasable due to permanent damage to the feather follicles on her right wing that prevent the flight feathers from growing in. This is her 4th year fostering chicks with us and by the end of the year she will likely have helped raise between 10-20 Barred Owls for release!

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