An owl trapped in concrete got a painstaking feather transplant - then flew off

A baby owl became trapped in a truck-mounted concrete mixer, leaving hardened concrete caked across its body. Caregivers removed the concrete using careful tools over several days. The owl could not be released because its right wing produced a whooshing sound during flight. Great horned owls rely on specific feather structure for silent flight, and concrete damage frayed about a dozen feathers. Caregivers expected molting but the owl did not shed the damaged feathers. They learned imping, a procedure that replaces broken feathers with healthy donated feathers, requiring precise matching of length, placement, and ideally color. Eleven feathers were replaced during a roughly 90-minute procedure, followed by aviary testing with sound measurement until the owl flew silently.

"The bird had become trapped in a truck-mounted concrete mixer, leaving hardened concrete caked across the owl's small body, from his face to his tail feathers. Richwalski took the owl to the Utah wildlife sanctuary where he works. He and other caregivers spent days meticulously removing the concrete with forceps, toothbrushes and dish soap."

"Great horned owls' feathers allow them to fly silently and sneak up on prey, but the concrete frayed about a dozen feathers on the owl's right wing. The owl's caregivers hoped he would molt, a process in which owls shed their feathers for new ones. But when the owl didn't this spring, his caregivers brainstormed other ways to heal him."

"They took training courses to learn a meticulous procedure called imping, in which broken feathers are replaced with healthy, donated feathers from another owl. The procedure needs to be executed perfectly: Each new feather has to be precisely the same length, in the same place and ideally the same color as the damaged feathers."

"Richwalski and other caregivers from Best Friends Animal Society replaced 11 of the owl's brown and gray feathers during the roughly 90-minute imping procedure this month. Then they took the owl to an aviary and listened to him fly, tracking the sound with a noise meter. When the owl flew silently, Richwalski said he felt like he could breathe for the first time in hours."

Read at The Washington Post