Birch
- Species - Eastern screech-owl (gray morph)
- Scientific name - Megascops asio
- Hatch year - 2019
- Sex - male
- Weight - 5 oz
- Location of origin - Captive breeding program in Illinois
- Unreleasable due to intentional human imprinting
- Flighted - Yes
Birch was hatched in 2019 at the Illinois Raptor Center as part of a captive-breeding program. He was purposely imprinted on humans to be an educational ambassador and cannot be released to the wild since he self-identifies with people.
Captive-breeding programs are very important for helping threatened species. Some raptor species, such as the California Condor and peregrine falcon, would have gone extinct without these programs. Other raptors, such as red-tailed hawks and great horned owls, are abundant across North America, so no such programs are needed for their species.
Our naturalists have to pay special attention to the body language of all our ambassador birds, but it’s especially important with small owls. Instead of the “fight or flight” responses we can observe in many animals, small owls prefer to “freeze”, or try to blend in with their environment. This is because they are both a predator to small rodents & insects, and prey to snakes, raccoons, or larger owls. This is one of the reasons some of our smaller owls can be harder to spot in their mews, since we give them plenty of ways to hide to improve their comfort.
