Owl partially covered in concrete is cleaned up and recovering after rescue in Utah

An owl found partially encased in concrete after it got inside a cement mixer in southwestern Utah is expected to fly free again after it was painstakingly cleaned by animal sanctuary workers who described the bird as a “fighter.”

The great horned owl was found at the Black Desert Resort in the southwestern part of the state and arrived at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, earlier this month with its face, chest and right wing covered in dried concrete. After making sure the bird could breathe, sanctuary workers spent days cracking apart the concrete using forceps and cleaning its feathers using toothbrushes, dish soap and their fingers.

Two weeks later, it was able to fly again and is continuing its recovery in an aviary.

“He’s a youngster, which may be why he ended up in a concrete mixer, and we do believe he’s a male because he’s on the smaller side,” said Bart Richwalski with the animal sanctuary.

Great horned owls typically have a downy coating on their feathers that allows them to fly silently as they hunt. But the concrete frayed the rescued owl’s feathers, said Best Friends’ Chief Sanctuary Officer Judah Battista.

Now the bird makes a “whooshing” sound as it flies, and the sanctuary won’t release it into the wild until it sheds its feathers and can again fly silently. That should occur next spring or summer, Battista said.

“Once our owl friend recovers, we anticipate taking him back to near where he was found, not on the construction site, but somewhere that is a natural habitat for him and release him and let him be,” Richwalski said.