An Idaho couple woke up on the morning of Aug. 17 to find that an owl had flown into their apartment and killed one of their canaries.
CDAPress.com reports that a brown, yellow-eyed owl had flown in through an open sliding glass door into the 10th story of a Co’eur d’Alene (a city in the northern Idaho Panhandle) apartment building, where it somehow opened up a bird cage, killed one of the canaries in the cage and slightly hurt the other.
Don and Sue Sausser woke up to find the owl, which is estimated to be six to eight inches in length, in between the wall and chest of drawers close to the bird cage before it flew to their balcony, with numerous bird droppings and feathers everywhere in the apartment.
The canary that was still alive appeared to be visibly shaken and nervous, as it was chirping very loudly with anxiety.
For the owl to have opened the cage, it would have had to use its head, beak or talons to lift the door.
Beth Paragamian, wildlife education specialist for Idaho Fish and Game and the Bureau of Land Management, described the incident as “the strangest thing,” as normally owls don’t fly high in a treeless area and seek out songbirds in human apartments.
“Isn’t it strange?” Sue Sausser asked CDAPress.com. “Who would have thought?”