An adolescent great horned owl that spent roughly six months in rehabilitation after tumbling into a cement mixer has returned to the wild in southwestern Utah with a set of grafted feathers. Staff at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab finalized the bird’s recovery last week using a procedure that bonds donor feathers to damaged shafts, restoring the aerodynamics required for silent hunting.
The ordeal began in late October when construction workers pouring concrete at a resort site discovered the bird trapped inside a truck-mounted mixer. The workers immediately hosed down the animal to prevent the cement from hardening further and wrapped it in a towel before arranging for transport.
Once at the sanctuary, staff spent several days removing the debris. Using forceps, workers cracked the dried concrete from the owl’s face, chest, and right wing, then cleaned the individual feathers with dish soap and toothbrushes.
The cement had frayed the owl’s feathers, disrupting the specialized tufting great horned owls possess along the edges of their flight feathers. This natural adaptation typically muffles their wingbeats, but the damaged bird produced a noticeable whooshing sound during early flight tests, which would compromise its ability to stalk prey. In early May, sanctuary supervisors performed a procedure called imping to resolve the issue.
“The first few feathers were extremely nerve-wracking, but as we got into the groove, the imping became more comfortable, and everything went smoothly,” said Bart Richwalski, a supervisor at the sanctuary who has cared for the bird since its discovery.
Staff examined the owl’s feather patterns weekly before the operation, anesthetizing the bird and trimming damaged shafts in advance. Donor feathers from a deceased owl of comparable size were laid out to match each wing, then cut and adhered to the bird. By the end of the 90-minute procedure, the owl had 10 new primary feathers and one secondary feather grafted onto its right wing. After waking in the aviary, the owl took flight immediately. Richwalski used a decibel meter to measure the wingbeat, determining the flight was quiet enough for release.
“It feels so, so good. I think my heart finally started beating again. The nervousness was starting to overtake the excitement, but once I saw him fly out that opening in the roof, it just was, it was a sight to see. It was so fun,” Richwalski said.
Karla Bloem, executive director of the International Owl Center in Minnesota, said the imping technique has been used by falconers “for eons” and is a proven treatment.
“I’ve never heard of it not lasting, because you use some pretty good stuff when you’re doing imping,” said Bloem, who has studied great horned owls for nearly three decades. She noted that while some grafted feathers might fall out, the majority should remain intact until the owl naturally molts during the summer months.
“And now it just needs to figure out, ‘whoa, I’m back in the big world again, hunting,’” she said. “Find a territory … you know, find one of the opposite sex and settle down and have kids.”