Who are you calling recessive?!

From South Florida Wildlife Center

This adult Burrowing Owl (25-7177) was rescued from a warehouse in Boynton Beach where he had been sitting, likely disoriented, in the high rafters for several days.

Our rescuers were initially concerned with the owl's abnormal eye color. If you're familiar with Burrowing Owls then you know most of them have piercing lemon -yellow eyes. This owl presented with mottled, dark brown tortoise-shell colored irises which have been identified as a recessive gene attributed to less than 5% of the Burrowing Owl population in Florida. Our clinic staff have been collecting eye and blood data from burrowing owls admitted to our center to aid in the research University of Idaho is doing on genetics and populations of these owls with the recessive gene.

Since the owl didn't have any obvious injuries or issues, staff wanted to ensure there were no underlying symptoms and moved him into rehabilitative care. After a short few days of monitoring, staff coordinated with Project Perch for release to a more suitable area.