Owl Takes Care Of A Baby Duckling Until It Hatched

Oct 28, 2019 by apost team

Just as humans adopt children, so too do animals adopt other animals, as exemplified in the remarkable story of an owl raising a baby duckling in Florida. Laurie Wolf, a resident of Jupiter, Florida, set up a nest box on her property in the hopes that a bird would use it to raise her babies. Laurie and her husband were thrilled when an eastern screech owl took up residence in the box, looking forward to seeing young owls when it was time for them to hatch.

One day Laurie was excited to hear chirping coming from the nest box. Taking out her camera, Laurie visited the nest box only to be greeted by the strangest sight imaginable. The screech owl was poking its head from the nest box, but instead of a baby owl sitting next to her, there was a little baby yellow and black duckling. At first, Laurie couldn’t believe the sight. Despite snapping a cute photo of the duo, Laurie was worried that the mother owl might try to harm the baby duck, so much so that she contacted a raptor expert. The expert confirmed Laurie’s fears, suggesting that if she could catch the baby, a local bird refuge could take of it. As a storm was rolling in, Laurie immediately went to the nest box to try and get the duckling, but as she did so, the baby flew away to a nearby pond.

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While the sight of a baby duckling in an owl’s nest might sound odd, it is relatively common. The duckling in Laurie’s nest box was the progeny of a wood duck. As explained by bird expert Christian Artuso, a director with Bird Studies Canada, wood ducks engage in brood parasitism, often laying their eggs in the nests of other birds. Artuso explains that brood parasitism is a way for wood ducks to maximize the spread of their genes, ensuring that if their own nest is ever compromised, their genes can still spread through ducklings in other nests.

While wood ducks only typically lay their eggs in the nests of other wood ducks or similar species, it is not unheard of for a wood duck to lay her eggs in the nest of an owl. Artuso previously wrote a study for the Wilson Journal of Ornithology about an owl who incubated three wood ducklings in 2007. As for Laurie’s duckling, Artuso says that it is possible that it survived on its own as the species us fiercely independent from a young age. Artuso also tells of cases where wood ducklings left their first nest to join another brood.

What do you think of how the screech owl in Florida took care of the duckling until it hatched? Let us know in the comments and be sure to pass this article along to others.