Owl is rescued from a glue trap, but at a cost

Bird may have a tough rehabilitation after a good Samaritan cut its feathers to extract it.

- BY CLARA HARTER

A great horned owl found itself in a seriously sticky situation after becoming stuck in a glue trap in Orange County, rendering it both flightless and food-less.

Fortunately, a good Samaritan found the bird and brought it to a local wildlife center in Huntington Beach. Unfortunately, the person used scissors to cut the bird's wings out of the tacky material intended to trap rodents and pests.

"The person was thinking they were doing the right thing by cutting most of the feathers to get the owl unstuck from the trap," said Debbie McGuire, executive director of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center. "But that seriously set back the bird's rehabilitation because now it has to go through a complete molt to be able to grow those feathers back."

Bird feathers, unlike hair, do not keep growing if cut. Most owls undergo complete molt once a year, shedding their feathers and growing new ones. However, larger species such as great horned owls tend to molt more slowly, and can take two or more years to replace all their feathers.