Fireball
Height about 6 inches (feet to head) Weight Approx160 grams (.5 pounds) Wingspan 1 foot Color:Red orange and white Age: 9 yrs Injury: Left Wing (wrist) damaged
Fireball is one of our favorite owls because he is so vocal. Screech owls are misnamed; they don't actually screech. Instead they make a trilling sound. Fireball never fails to show what screech owls really sound like!
-Fireball is a full grown adult, not a baby owl. We have been assuming his age to be about 6 - 9 years old. In captivity he can live 15 to 20 years. - Fireball has been an educational bird for about 5 years. He came to the refuge after being hit by a car in Apex. -Fireball’s left wing is damaged, so he cannot fly well enough to live in the wild -Fireball was named after his angry and volatile attitude after ripping through a handler’s glove. -Screech Owls don’t screech. Their calls are often mistaken for frogs and insects, or a horse whinny in the distance, but they do not screech at all. -Screech owls are amazing at hiding. They can blend in to a tree so you will not even know they are there. -Screech owl talons are razor sharp, and able to exceed 100 lbs PSI, the equivalent of a human adult. -Screech Owls live in holes in trees. -Screech owls have an extremely bad attitude. Most of them will attack any time they feel threatened, and when they are this small they often feel threatened. -Screech Owls eat small rodents, worms, small snakes, insects, and birds. They often attack animals as large as themselves for food.
