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The Jay C. Hormel Nature Center has acquired a new resident education bird — a great horned owl named Cedar.

After the passing of the center’s barred owl, Guka, in the winter of 2022, the center began the search for another bird to replace him.

“We knew we wanted another owl, but also that we might have to be patient to find the right bird. It needed to be non-releasable, but otherwise should be healthy, said Director Luke Reese. “It should also be a species of owl that responds well to training.”

Nature Center staff filtered through numerous options from different channels, but it was a connection to the International Owl Center in Houston that was the answer. A former nature center intern and current Owl Center staff member, Andie Harveaux, passed along information that came to the Owl Center about a baby great horned owl that was injured in Oklahoma.

The owl was knocked out of its nest along with its two siblings due to wildfires in an area outside of Tulsa. Two of the owlets were deemed releasable, while one had sustained an injury on the wingtip preventing proper strength for flying longer distances, and would not be able to hunt properly.

Discussions went deep into the health, condition, and overall disposition of the owl being put up for placement. Once this owl passed the first line of questioning, nature center staff gathered vet reports from rehabbers and then passed them along to the vet team at The Raptor Center [TRC] in St. Paul.

“After so many starts and stops, it was so exciting to know that we’d found the perfect bird,” said Nature Center naturalist Sydney Weisinger.

Nature Center staff ventured 600 miles to Oklahoma to pick up the owl. He was then brought to the Raptor Center for a check-up where it was decided that the very tip of the wing needed to be amputated due to the injury. TRC completed the surgery and began training the owl while the paperwork for federal and state permitting went through.

In late June the permits went through and Cedar traveled to Austin to be introduced to the Nature Center. Staff are slowly working to train Cedar so he will have a comfortable life at the nature center.

“While he is on display for the public to see, he will not be doing programs for a while,” said naturalist Kelly Bahl. “There might also be days where his display window is covered for Cedar’s comfort as he is learning about new things a great horned owl like him has never experienced before.”

His enclosure is in the interpretive center exhibit space. The Jay C. Hormel Nature Center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and it is free to explore.