A morning jogger called Mesa firefighters after they saw a great horned owl hanging from a power line on Oct. 15, the department said in a social media post.
The light-brown and white owl was dangling from one wing off the electrical lines along the canal near Main Street and Gilbert Road. Its wing was caught in fishing wire that then got wrapped around the power line.
Salt River Project crew cut the fishing line, lowered the bird and, with the Fire Department’s help, secured it in a blanket.
A dedicated avian specialist with SRP transported it to Liberty Wildlife.
Laura Hackett, a wildlife biologist with the organization, said the owl was in good condition.
“She looks really, really healthy,” Hackett said.
She said the bird’s feather condition was
great and she had good weight on her.
The fishing wire was wrapped around a couple of her primary feathers, so it was “fairly easy” for them to clip it off the bird, she said.
“There was minimal damage to the feathers, which is amazing,” Hackett said.
There was no tissue damage, and nothing had been broken from being twisted on the power line, she said.
Hackett called it an amazing prognosis for the great horn owl.
Liberty Wildlife was planning to keep her at their facility for a few days to recover, and over the weekend, planned to test her in one of their flight cages to make sure everything was working okay, Hackett said.
The organization planned to release the owl back to its habitat near where it was found early next week, she said.
Hackett said if residents see birds stuck on electrical lines, they should always alert the power companies first before alerting rescues.
“We obviously can’t touch any of that equipment because it's energized,” she said.
Hackett said both SRP and the APS power companies have avian protection teams that go out and handle those situations and then get in touch with the rescue organizations.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mesa firefighters had a hoot saving an owl dangling from power line
