Great Horned Owl family found dead by local farmer

By Lethbridge Herald on May 18, 2022.

Nicholas Allen
For The Herald

Mystery surrounds the death of a Great Horned Owl family that happened last week, with the recent avian flu outbreak potentially to blame.

Local farmer Walt Strand found two adult and two juvenile Great Horned Owls deceased at his farm east of Lethbridge on May 6. Managing director of the Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation, Colin Weir, said he has been receiving calls from farmers and ranchers across southern Alberta about the deaths of owls. 

“They’re pretty distraught and upset having these owls die, sometimes in their arms,” said Weir.

Weir explained that the recent outbreak of a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is likely to blame for the deaths of owls in the province. He described how waterfowl that contract the disease and then pass away can pass on HPAI.

“If they were to eat a dead duck [with HPAI], they would actually contract this avian influenza and die themselves,” said Weir.

According to information on the Government of Alberta website, in late 2021 a HPAI, known as the H5N1 strain, was detected across Canada in domestic and wild birds. Significant mortality was documented in domestic poultry in some maritime provinces. A similar H5N1 was detected in a few wild waterfowl in the same local areas after an increase in surveillance. Federal and provincial disease control programs were activated to control the outbreaks in domestic birds.

Strand said the owls were around for a couple of months before he found them deceased while mowing his lawn last Friday. He claims they helped keep his rodent populations down and was sad to see how close the young owls were to reaching adulthood.

“Give them another two weeks and they would have been able to fly away,” said Strand.

Strand alleges the owls may have been killed not by the avian influenza but by a pair of geese that have claimed his farm yard as “their territory” although he never witnessed the attack take place. Weir says it is unlikely that the owls were killed by aggressive geese.

“The young owlets would be more vulnerable because they’re on the ground if they’ve jumped out of their nest prematurely they’re quite a bit more vulnerable because they can’t really escape. They can’t take flight. The parent owls, on the other hand, would be able to take flight and get away from a goose that’s being aggressive,” said Weir.

Weir added that Canada Geese are capable of killing other animals, such as cases he had seen involving the deaths of baby rabbits where they go up to the rabbit and smack them with their bill. 

“Great Horned Owls are pretty robust and physically tough. If they were under serious attack like that and they would just take flight and get away themselves, so it’s unlikely that a goose could [kill an adult owl]. Possible, but unlikely,” explained Weir, “And don’t forget, a goose could also kill a Great Horned Owl that’s been compromised by avian flu.”

According to Weir, an aggressive goose would easily be able to walk up to a sick owl and peck it a few times due to its compromised state. This spread of HPAI is something that the Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation is trying to prevent within its own birds at the facility in Coaldale.

“We’re actually taking biosecurity precautions at our centre to stop the avian flu from impacting the birds that we have. So we are not accepting any injured birds at the moment on our site, because it’s possible they could actually bring the avian flu to our centre,” said Weir.

He also said the foundation will not be having the pet ducks for children out of an “abundance of caution” to mitigate the risk of avian flu being present on their site. Weir says that so far this year they have not had any fatalities on the site because of illness or any other reason.

More information about the HPAI outbreak can be found on the Government of Alberta website.