Local family rescues owl hit by car, aids in recovery and return to wild

One evening last month, Ozark County Times Advertising Manager Jenny Yarger was home with her children, 17-year-old Zeke and 10-year-old Ezra, after a busy day of work and school. They were settling in when Jenny’s husband, Zack, walked through the door with a big surprise— a screech owl nestled in his hands.

Zack explained to Jenny and Zeke that he was driving slowly up their driveway when the owl flew into his windshield and bounced off. He immediately stopped the truck, opened his door, and found the injured bird lying on the ground next to the vehicle with its wings outstretched and its eyes closed. Fearing the worst, Zack picked it up and realized it was still breathing. He carefully folded its wings and brought it inside. The owl, bleeding slightly from one eye, remained stunned but alive.

Jenny and Zeke rushed to see the owl. “I quickly Googled what to do, and it said to wrap it in a blanket to keep it warm,” Jenny said. Zeke held the owl while she grabbed a blanket from the laundry closet. “The first one I found was one of Zeke’s old baby blankets—a little blue fleece one he hadn’t used in 17 years.”

After getting the owl warm, Zack mentioned he had a birdcage in his shop. The statement came as a shock to Jenny, because the Yargers have no pet birds or plans to get one in the future. “But Zack’s a big thrifter—he started thrifting during his lunch breaks when he worked in Mountain Home, and he’s kept it up now that he works in Branson. He says you never know when we might need something,” she said.

Zeke left to retrieve the cage from the shop, and a few minutes later, Jenny heard a commotion at the door as he struggled to get it inside. “By this point, I was holding the owl and wondering why Zeke couldn’t open the door. Then he came in with this huge, beautiful birdcage that barely fit through the doorway. Zack was so proud of his thrift-store find and said, ‘What do you think of that?’” Jenny laughed. “Sometimes his thrift shopping can be overwhelming, but this time, it really paid off.”

Meanwhile, Ezra, who had been taking a bath, was unaware of the excitement. “When she got out, we told her to hurry and put on her pajamas because we had a surprise. She asked, ‘Is it a cat?’ and we said, ‘No, it’s way cooler than a cat!’ When she saw the owl, she was in love too. She laid on the couch next to it and couldn’t wait to hold it.”

From their online research, the Yargers learned that the owl’s closed eyes and bleeding were signs of trauma. Unable to find much more advice, Jenny texted local Missouri Department of Conservation Agent Tom Leeker to see if he might have some insight. “I told him we had an injured owl with some blood in its eye, and we think it might have head trauma.”

Leeker recommended taking the owl to the Dickerson Park Zoo’s Raptor Rehab Program in Springfield, a facility specializing in injured raptors like owls, hawks and eagles. He offered to transport the owl himself but warned the family that many animals brought there are too injured to recover and are euthanized.

“Most of the time, they’re not able to be rahabbed,” Leeker told the Times. “I’ve taken probably a dozen raptors there, whether they were hawks, owls or eagles, and I think they have been able to successfully rehab two of them.” 

Leeker said that birds that have bones coming through the skin or any spinal injury are generally not able to be helped at the rehab center. He said residents can always contact him (417-989-1693) if they come across an injured raptor, but he warns that you shouldn’t be overly optimistic. “But if there’s a good chance it might make it, I will definitely do what I can to get it to the rehab center.”

The family decided to keep the owl comfortable overnight. They made a small pallet inside the cage with the blanket and decided to call their new feathered friend Henry. “I kept checking on him and unwrapping the blanket to ensure he was still alive. He fluttered his wings, which Tom said was a good sign that there wasn’t any wing damage,” Jenny said.

The next morning, Zack added a branch to the cage, and Henry perched on it, though his eyes remained closed. He began to slowly rotate his head, a promising sign. Following advice from an article Zack’s friend in England found, they gently opened Henry’s eyes to assess the damage. One eye looked normal, but the other was completely black.

“The article said that if an eye wasn’t healthy, the owl needed to see a specialist,” Jenny explained. “We had originally hoped we could just keep him in the cage to rest overnight and then he’d be better the next morning, and we could release him. But with his eye badly damaged, we realized that wasn’t a good option. So, even though we were really worried we’d never see him again, we asked Tom if he could take Henry to the rehab center. Zack was really attached to him—he jogs three times a week down our road and always sees a bird flying nearby. He felt like it might’ve been this one and was heartbroken about hitting it. He really wanted him to be okay.”

Jenny brought Henry to the Ozark County Times office, where Leeker picked him up and transported him to the Dickerson Park Zoo’s Raptor Rehab Program in Springfield. 

A couple of days later, Jenny called the facility to check on Henry’s condition. The staff member told Jenny that Henry had suffered trauma to his eye, which would have to be removed. She said that if the owl came through the surgery OK, it would need to recover before it would be released back into the county where it was found. 

DPZ’s Raptor Rehab program’s animal health technician April Marler told the Times that Henry had bleeding and a blown retina in his left eye, which rendered him blind on that side. Thankfully, the owl’s right eye still had its vision.  

“Because owl’s eyes are forward facing, and they hunt primarily with their ears, we are able to remove the injured eye and have good chances at recovery and release,” Marler said. “The veterinarian performed surgery to remove the injured eye. This is common practice and animals do well with adjustment. The animal received pain medication before and after the surgery.”

Jenny continued to check in on Henry periodically at the center and was told that his surgery had been successful, and his eye had been removed. He was back to eating and was recovering nicely. After surgery, he transitioned into a larger exhibit for a period of time, which allowed him to build his wing strength back up after having an extended period when he was not using his wings. Once his wings were strong enough, the technician said he would be ready to be released back into the wild.

Jenny asked if there was any way Henry could be released back onto their property. Tom had mentioned that he was willing to pick the owl up and bring it to the Yarger’s farm if the rehab facility was willing to release the owl to him. Although the rehab facility does not allow release back to individuals, they agreed to let Leeker facilitate the transfer as a conservation agent to the Yarger’s property in Protem. 

On the Saturday before Christmas, Leeker went to the rehab facility to pick Henry up and met the Yargers at their house. 

“Tom warned us that he wasn’t going to be the same bird that we had gotten used to, and he was right! He said Zack could get him out of the cage, but he would need to hold onto him. Henry was flapping his wings like crazy. So that was good, to see him all feisty and a lot better than he was when we first found him,” Jenny said.

The family snapped a few photos and moved closer to a wooded area in the front yard before Henry took flight, flying to the top of a nearby tree.

“Then he hung upside down like a bat, and we were all worried. He stayed like that for quite a while, and we thought, ‘Uh, oh. This guy isn’t normal.’ But finally, after several minutes, he flew up and sat normally. Then he flew tree to tree for quite a while,” Jenny said.

After Leeker left, the Yargers remained outside watching Henry until he eventually took flight down the lane the family frequents for jogs and walks - no doubt happy to be back in familiar territory. Screech owls typically stay within just a few miles from their nesting site, meaning he has likely lived near the Yarger farm for a good part of his life.

Jenny says she’s certain that Henry’s still around. Occasionally on her walks, she pauses to glance up at the treetops, hoping to spot their feathered friend. On a few occasions, she’s seen a tuft of white and brown coloring in a tree and she’s smiled, knowing that Henry is up there, happily soaring the skies of the farm they both call home. 

About the Dickerson Park Zoo Raptor Rehab Program

The Raptor Rehab Program program at the Dickerson Park Zoo’s Animal Hospital found its beginnings in the late 1970s when zoo staff and volunteers began helping residents and conservation agents with injured birds that were found. The program is funded by donations, Friends of the Zoo and Springfield-Greene County Parks Department. The zoo is part of the Parks Department, and Friends of the Zoo is the not-for-profit support organization of the zoo. 

“The hospital is an all-female team consisting of two veterinarians and two animal health technicians. Raptors are brought to us by MDC agents and concerned citizens. Care depends on the injury. Some birds require surgery, some just meds and rest. Orphaned birds learn to fly and hunt in our flight cage,” DPZ Public Relations Director Joey Powell said. 

The rehab center receives between 200 and 300 injured raptors per year, along with a number of migratory birds.

“Last year we released 31 percent [of the birds that were brought in for treatment]. Unfortunately, all the birds we see have been bodily compromised. We have permits with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Missouri Department of Conservation. Those permits are specific regarding what we are allowed to do to help these animals. We do everything we can, but unfortunately, there are cases where it is most humane to euthanize the animal to prevent prolonged suffering,” Powell explained.

Anyone who finds an injured raptor may bring it to the DPZ admission gate for transport to the rehab center. A zookeeper or someone from the hospital will come get the bird and take it to the hospital for assessment and treatment. 

“The Dickerson Park Zoo hospital staff is dedicated to doing our best to assist all the animals coming into our rehab program. The hospital staff has a combined 58 years of experience working with rehabilitating animals,” animal tech Marler said. “We celebrate the successes and mourn the losses all the while honing our skills to do our best for each and every patient."

How you can help

“Each year we get baby birds brought to us by concerned citizens thinking the birds have been abandoned. If you see a bird at the foot of a tree, most likely the parents are close by watching. They are not orphaned or abandoned. Stay back and keep watching. Many times birds have been brought in, which should have been left in the wild to mature.” Powell said. 

Another easy thing people can do to help raptors is to avoid throwing apple cores and food out the car window, Powell said.  

“You may think it is just nourishing the soil, but when a rodent comes after it, a raptor can sweep down to get the rodent and get hit by a car.”

To find out more about the Dickerson Park Zoo’s Raptor Rehab Program, visit dickersonparkzoo.org/about/animal-hospital-wildlife-rehab or by calling the zoo at 417-833-1570.

The zoo also periodically posts photos on its social media pages: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter).