After more than a month of rehabilitation a pueo (Hawaiian short-eared owl) was released Friday on private ranch land in west Kauai.
The release site in Kalaheo is near to where the young bird was rescued in late March and taken to the Save our Shearwaters (SOS) facility at the Kauai Humane Society, the Department of Land and Natural Resources said. After the box in which the owl was transported to the site in is opened, the pueo looked around for a few seconds and then hopped out onto the road where it spent several minutes fluffing its wings and surveying the territory. It then flew off into the sunset. Prior to its release a metal band with a unique identifying number was put on one of its legs so it can be identified if it’s ever picked up again.
The bird was spotted struggling alongside a highway on March 22 by Andre Raine, of the Kauai Endangered Seabird Recovery Project.
The female pueo was brought to SOS where it was treated for head and eye injuries and a fractured radius in its left wing, said Tracy Anderson, of SOS. On April 11, the bird was flown to the Big Island’s Hawaii Wildlife Center to continue rehabilitation in a larger flight aviary and was returned to Kauai on Friday for release.
Anderson believes the young pueo was hit by a car.
Pueo are found on all of the main Hawaiian Islands and on Oahu they are listed by the state as endangered.