The Bird


Duchess the Great Horned Owl could teach your child his or her next important lesson about the environment.

Each year, Duchess travels with staff from the Iowa Raptor Project to make about 50 of the 380 presentations (to schools, businesses and other organizations) to educate the public on raptors in their environment.

Though she doesn’t say much, Duchess always attracts attention. “The kids always love Duchess,” said Jodeane Cancilla, “when they see the owl, they sort of go ‘oooo!’ I think it’s the eyes.”

Duchess does have striking eyes – one bright yellow and one a little more opaque – in her old age she has developed a cataract. She also has one lame wing, due to a fractured right wrist she received fifteen years ago after an unfortunate tangle with a power line. Thus, Duchess cannot return to the wild, as some of her fellow birds at the Raptor Center will someday be able to do.

So, rather than be cooped up in a cage for the remainder of her life (some owls in captivity can live more than twenty years), Duchess became a part of the presentation circuit. Since she is such an iconic figure in the program, students pay close notice to her and her human companion, thus making their message more effective.

— Andrea P