Rare Burrowing Owl found injured in Chilliwack area

It’s not a very large bird, but an injured Burrowing Owl that was found in the Chilliwack area last week made for big news. It’s officially an endangered species in Canada, and nearly extinct in BC, so a sighting is certainly rare. The Burrowing Owl Conservation Society breeds them in captivity in the Okanagan and releases them into the wild as they try to repopulate. Mike Mackintosh tells us they have tracked sightings from Kamloops all the way down to Mexico, and it’s important that these sightings are reported.

“We need to maintain a very strong and diverse network of connections, so that whenever a bird like this is spotted, people can report them in and hopefully this will add to our knowledge base, for their success.”

This particular bird ended up not making it. Mackintosh says they are migratory, and this one may have been heading south and was passing through the valley (it isn’t the first sighting here). He says they place bands on the owls they release, but this one was un-banded, so it could potentially have been one of the offspring of one of theirs.