Adorable Owl Rescued After Taking Nosedive Onto Busy SoCal Roadway

New York Post ^ | March 27, 2026 | Nine Joudeh

[nickcarraway]

An adorable owl was rescued late Thursday evening by the California Highway Patrol after crashing onto a busy Southern California roadway.

The injured owl was found on a busy three-lane road in Stevenson Ranch at about 10:14 p.m., officer Luis Quintero from the California Highway Patrol told the California Post.

Officers spotted the beige, wide-eyed owl stranded along The Old Road, just north of Stevenson Ranch Parkway in Santa Clarita. Lying helpless in the left lane, the owl struggled on its back, wings fluttering against the pavement.

[ek_hornbeck]

Sadly, owls are among the most common roadkill birds. They fly low and slow over roads looking for rodents, I've narrowly missed colliding with several great horned owls while driving at night over the years.

A friend of mine has a wildlife rehab permit and I've helped him with his projects (everything from raptors to foxes), one of which was an injured screech owl. It was an ornery little thing, but would tolerate us enough to sit on a gloved fist, and eventually was able to catch mice again on its own and be released back into the woods. He never had a great horned owl, would have been interesting as long as it doesn't decide to sink its huge talons into you!

[OrangeHoof]

I have seen videos on YouTube of owls stuck in fences and other predicaments that allowed men to rescue them, operate on them and release them back into the wild. Turns out the whole damn thing was AI. No real owl. No heartwarming rescue.

Be very wary of stories like these.

[ek_hornbeck]

If the owl (or any wild bird/animal) just sits there calmly and lets you handle it, it's either half-dead or it's a fake video.

The screech owl that my friend and I rescued and rehabbed had fishing line tangled around its wing - the knot that formed actually cut into and damaged the wing. The owl flailed, bit, and scratched/footed the whole time we were trying to untangle and cut the fishing line. It didn't sit there calmly appreciating what we were doing to help it - as far as it was concerned, we were two giant animals who planned to eat it.

[DPMD]

Given his piloting abilities, maybe a Barely Adequate Horned Owl?

[Vaduz]

Must havre ate a bad mouse?.

[xone]

The ravens get very upset about it.

The ravens should be and know it. The GHO is a formidable predator.