54 owls fell from the sky across the Phoenix area. Why? (Heat exhaustion from climate change)

[Coventina]

During a span of five weeks last fall, more than four dozen owls were discovered sick or dead across metropolitan Phoenix.

The baseball-sized flammulated owls – able to fly 300 miles in a day - were found in pools, yards, and public spaces. Seventeen of the 54 were dead, the rest suffering. In the end, just 13 of the owls survived.

The mystery of the 54 “flammies” has researchers at three universities working with the Arizona Game and Fish Department to determine just what happened.

John Bello found one of the owls. The assistant director of ASU’s Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve in north Phoenix, Bello found the owl near a patio when he began his shift at work one morning in October 2024. The curious-looking owl was dead but had no visible injuries. Bello sent a photo of the small carcass to his friend, a veterinary anatomic pathologist.

“He said to immediately put it on ice and preserve it,” Bello said.

That pathologist is Jason Struthers, professor at Midwestern University’s Animal Health Institute in Glendale.

Struthers, a member of several Audubon societies, had already gotten word from two local bird sanctuaries about a spate of flammulated owls being turned into them by good Samaritans.


https://www.12news.com/article/life/animals/54-sick-owls-fall-from-sky-across-phoenix-arizona-investigation/75-701d834c-8bc2-4fc8-b54c-6e313cf95a17

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I hate my species.

[chowder66]

1. This is so damn sad.

[moondust]

2. Spain reports 2025 hottest summer on record.

With record wildfires.

https://apnews.com/article/spain-hottest-summer-climate-526388beb823d62093961492eeb36cee