JCS: Audubon Center for Birds of Prey 10/14/2026
Dr. Daisy Fiore, Senior Coordinator for Education at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey, brings along Billie Owlish, an Eastern Screech Owl, to talk about their new owl aviary, as well as upcoming events, including 'Hawks and Haunts,' and more.
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Speaker 3: I'm Jim.
Speaker 1: There's Deb. Hello.
Speaker 4: Jack.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 3: And Ross. Royalty free primus. Let's do Animal House.
Speaker 1: She likes them fuzzy, furry, feathery, tough, and scaly. It's
Speaker 1: time for Animal House with Deborah Roberts.
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Speaker 4: touch with Glenn at the end of Animal House. But
Speaker 4: now please join me in welcoming back one of our favorites, Dr.
Speaker 4: Daisy Fiore and Billy Owlish from the Audubon Center for
Speaker 4: Birds of Prey.
Speaker 5: Yay! Yay!
Speaker 1: Other than bats, are owls the most associated with Halloween?
Speaker 6: Owls, spiders, bats. I think they're all in competition.
Speaker 1: Spiders.
Speaker 3: You started this interview off with woo. They forgot the
Speaker 3: right person.
Speaker 1: Daisy's one of my favorites. I love it when Daisy
Speaker 1: comes in. You had a nice compliment. Somebody on the
Speaker 1: texting service said they love it when you come in
Speaker 1: because you're always sweet and spread joy. I agree with that.
Speaker 6: Aww, that's so cute. So does Billy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Billy Owlish.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what are you, well, if you see Billy having
Speaker 4: a snack, what's the snack there, Daisy? You got a
Speaker 4: little pouch around you, and you know, normally you get
Speaker 4: little cat or dog snacks, but not Billy.
Speaker 5: No, I have a raw mouse in my.
Speaker 4: Snack pouch.
Speaker 1: You keep that high five to yourself.
Speaker 5: My hand smells so good.
Speaker 1: Like a Tsushima rat?
Speaker 3: Heck yeah.
Speaker 5: No, it's just like, The whole mouse, the bones, the organs,
Speaker 5: all that. Ground up.
Speaker 6: Delicious.
Speaker 1: We love it.
Speaker 6: She was like, don't be so dramatic.
Speaker 2: She literally did look at you like, dude, are you okay?
Speaker 6: When we get back, she'll probably get a worm.
Speaker 4: Oh, wow.
Speaker 2: Extra good performance.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 3: What would be the zenith of food for an owl? Like,
Speaker 3: we love filet mignons as a human, right? Or what
Speaker 3: would be an owl's filet mignon?
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, this is a screech owl, right?
Speaker 6: Correct.
Speaker 4: Eastern screech owl. Is this the smallest of the owl
Speaker 4: breeds that we.
Speaker 2: Have in the States?
Speaker 6: Yes, the smallest in Florida, for sure.
Speaker 4: Okay, so this would be like the filet mignon for
Speaker 4: like a barred owl?
Speaker 6: Possibly.
Speaker 5: A little snack for a barred owl. You know, you've
Speaker 5: got the right animal, just the wrong part. All raptors
Speaker 5: universally love beef hearts.
Speaker 1: Do they really?
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 1: I was not expecting that.
Speaker 6: They probably couldn't get in the wild.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: They're all Peruvian.
Speaker 5: But you can actually go to Publix. You can ask
Speaker 5: the butcher for a beef heart. They're very expensive. Some
Speaker 5: humans do eat them. I'm told it's delicious.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm telling you, it's a Peruvian staple. It really is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6: But the birds love it.
Speaker 1: I wonder why.
Speaker 6: Is it because of the iron level or something?
Speaker 2: I would imagine.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 6: It is kind of fatty.
Speaker 5: Oh. So I imagine it's like partly that, but it's
Speaker 5: like candy for these guys.
Speaker 6: They go absolutely nuts.
Speaker 1: Wow. That's crazy.
Speaker 2: Can you get her to talk?
Speaker 1: Was that the owl?
Speaker 6: You know, Billy's not a big talker.
Speaker 2: She's not?
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 6: I mean, not during the day. At night, she's pretty chatty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like she chatted up.
Speaker 6: You know, she'll mostly only talk to other owls.
Speaker 1: We're trash.
Speaker 6: What was that, Ross?
Speaker 3: No, I thought I heard a noise. That was Deborah. Oh,
Speaker 3: I was like, damn, did the owls chirp?
Speaker 6: It was not bad, though.
Speaker 1: That was close.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I used to call her the owls when I lived
Speaker 4: in Delaney Park. So Billie Owlish has been with you
Speaker 4: guys for quite a while now.
Speaker 5: She has. She turned six or seven this year. And
Speaker 5: she's been with us since she was like tiny, like
Speaker 5: three weeks old. She came in like the size of
Speaker 5: a marshmallow.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah.
Speaker 6: And she had an infection in both her eyes. She
Speaker 6: just got it out in the wild. It happens.
Speaker 5: But it destroyed one of her eyes. So it's very
Speaker 5: hard to hunt without depth perception. Sometimes adult owls can
Speaker 5: figure it out if they've already learned to hunt and
Speaker 5: they lose an eye, but a baby who's never had
Speaker 5: the eye.
Speaker 1: Is just impossible.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And she's just kind of been an ambassador since that moment, correct?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well, she was with us so small that like, she's
Speaker 5: really chill. You know, I say she's my chillest older.
Speaker 5: She's the one I take to events and preschools.
Speaker 6: Are owls found on every continent? Except Antarctica.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: Wow, really?
Speaker 1: So there's not like a snow owl? I thought there was.
Speaker 2: Oh, there is.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's a snow owl.
Speaker 1: They're beautiful, my God, man. Yeah, but they don't chill
Speaker 1: in Antarctica?
Speaker 6: No, they're north.
Speaker 1: I guess there's no trees in Antarctica.
Speaker 2: I have seen one snowy owl in my whole life.
Speaker 2: One snowy owl.
Speaker 6: In the wild?
Speaker 2: In the wild.
Speaker 1: We're talking wild.
Speaker 4: In the wild, in Wisconsin, in the wintertime. It had
Speaker 4: come and flown and landed on the top of a theater.
Speaker 4: That bird had to have been huge. It was huge.
Speaker 4: Wingspan alone. Very rare to see a snowy owl.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I've only ever seen one in a zoo.
Speaker 2: Really, yeah.
Speaker 1: How often do you make the mistake with Ratfinger? and
Speaker 1: do stuff on your face with rat finger. Do you accidentally,
Speaker 1: like if something happens in your face, you forget you
Speaker 1: have rat finger and you reach up there and scratch
Speaker 1: it with rat finger? Yeah, all the time.
Speaker 6: Is it like poop talk?
Speaker 5: I'll like find it in my hair when I shower.
Speaker 5: One time I found a whole mouse in my pocket.
Speaker 1: Oh, cool.
Speaker 5: And I went through the laundry and I was like, well...
Speaker 5: His pants are ruined.
Speaker 1: Yeah, people are going to look at you.
Speaker 5: And go.
Speaker 1: That's an odd climbing aid.
Speaker 5: Yeah, every zookeeper has done it. You find hay in
Speaker 5: like weird places. You're sitting on the couch and you're like,
Speaker 5: why is there hay?
Speaker 1: But not an animal. You just put an animal in
Speaker 1: there like a crumpled up fiber. He ever say hi
Speaker 1: to hay? There's a mouse in my couch. Good Lord.
Speaker 1: So what's going on? We were talking before the segment.
Speaker 1: You said that things are cracking over at the center.
Speaker 6: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 5: We're going to be so busy this fall. We got
Speaker 5: a bunch of new stuff planned. You know, we built
Speaker 5: our brand new owl aviary and we're like, Halloween's on
Speaker 5: a Saturday.
Speaker 6: Let's get spooky.
Speaker 5: You know, I got these owls. So we've never done
Speaker 5: a Halloween event, but we are doing one. It's called
Speaker 5: Hawks and Haunts.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 6: I came up with that and I'm so proud of it.
Speaker 1: That's it. Doctor working hard.
Speaker 5: That's why I get paid the very medium bucks. So
Speaker 5: it's Halloween on Halloween, 10 a.m.
Speaker 3: To 2 p.m.
Speaker 5: Two of us went, I can go get the candy
Speaker 5: and then didn't communicate and both went and got the candy.
Speaker 6: So for the love of.
Speaker 5: Heaven, come get some candy because I double purchased. So
Speaker 5: you can do your daytime trick-or-treating, bring the kids, wear
Speaker 5: the costumes. We're going to have a spooky bubble dance party.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 5: I don't know what that means. I'm going to play
Speaker 5: Monster Mash and we're going to get nuts.
Speaker 2: Come join us.
Speaker 5: The birds will have some spooky toys. And get a
Speaker 5: ton of candy and enjoy the birds. It's all included
Speaker 5: with admission that day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 5: You might as well come get the extras. But I'm
Speaker 5: really excited. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, the 28th of November,
Speaker 5: we're having our first ever Holiday Market.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so we invited over a dozen vendors from all
Speaker 5: over Central Florida. Artists, crocheters, you name it, Christmas ornaments.
Speaker 5: Come do all your holiday shopping at the center. It's
Speaker 5: free with a gift from our wish list.
Speaker 2: Oh, nice.
Speaker 5: So throw us a roll of paper towels and you
Speaker 5: get all this for free. We're going to have a
Speaker 5: food truck. We're going to have extra Raptor meet and greets.
Speaker 6: It's going to be. Amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right there in Maitland, too. Super easy to find. Yes,
Speaker 1: so easy. Centrally located, easy to find.
Speaker 5: You're going to have the family in for Thanksgiving weekend.
Speaker 5: You're going to be looking for stuff to do anyway.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And kids love these birds, do they not?
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 1: I mean, they lose their minds over these birds, don't they?
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 5: Oh, my gosh. I'm sure I'll have Billy out at
Speaker 5: some point. There will be lots for the kids to do,
Speaker 5: and you can get your shopping done.
Speaker 6: It's going to be awesome.
Speaker 1: What kind of questions do they ask you guys about
Speaker 1: the birds? I mean, is there a common thing, a
Speaker 1: common trope that comes up from students who ask you
Speaker 1: about the raptors?
Speaker 5: Kids are very unpredictable. So they'll be like, who's Billy's
Speaker 5: best friend? What's Billy's favorite color? Mostly kids ask, like,
Speaker 5: what do they eat and where do they live? And like,
Speaker 5: can they spin their heads all the way around?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6: Which, you know, three quarters of the way.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have a question.
Speaker 3: Another bird owl predator question is that like I'm seeing
Speaker 3: right here. I'm just doing quick research about like I
Speaker 3: want to learn more about owls quickly. And I'm seeing
Speaker 3: that like if they eat an entire mouse, right? Skeleton, everything.
Speaker 3: They just keep all the nutrients and throw up the
Speaker 3: stuff that they can't digest.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir.
Speaker 1: And that's every bird that got the two finger diet. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well, all the raptors. So they eat things whole. You know,
Speaker 5: they don't have a fork and a knife. So the
Speaker 5: owls just swallow it whole. If I gave her a mouse,
Speaker 5: she could swallow it whole. There's fur and feathers and
Speaker 5: bones and crap that you don't want. So they just
Speaker 5: cough it up. That's an owl pellet.
Speaker 1: Wow, really?
Speaker 2: And that's what it's called, owl pellet.
Speaker 6: An owl pellet.
Speaker 4: But that's also why it's really important if you have
Speaker 4: rodents to find a more natural or.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 4: Because the rodent dies, then the owl eats the rodent
Speaker 4: or the owl takes the rodent back to their nest
Speaker 4: and feeds it to their young.
Speaker 2: And now you have.
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly.
Speaker 6: Rodenticides are a big, big problem.
Speaker 1: Big issue.
Speaker 6: Owls there's a lot of.
Speaker 5: Owls and pesticides do pesticides are like really small so
Speaker 5: she'd eat a lot of insects so if you poison
Speaker 5: those You're.
Speaker 2: Going to poison her.
Speaker 6: You're going to poison her.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's crazy, man.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So is it just rural owls? I mean, or like
Speaker 1: owls that live kind of in cities? Because owls live
Speaker 1: harmoniously in cities all the time, right?
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they would run into that rodenticide kind of
Speaker 1: thing quite often. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: You'd be surprised how much people in the country, though,
Speaker 5: spread stuff. Yeah, and pesticides on crops.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: All kinds of stuff like that. I mean, the best
Speaker 5: solution is to attract the owls, you know? When I
Speaker 5: moved into my house, I had a rat problem in
Speaker 5: the attic. And they were like, you know, put the
Speaker 5: poisons out.
Speaker 6: I didn't. But I did.
Speaker 1: Put the owl in.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I got a leaf pile in the back. I
Speaker 5: got a brush pile. I attracted a pair of great
Speaker 5: horned owls. They have babies every year. I haven't seen
Speaker 5: a rat since.
Speaker 1: No way.
Speaker 2: It's the best.
Speaker 4: It's just between that and rat snakes, it's the best
Speaker 4: way for natural protection.
Speaker 1: But the leaf pile is what drew it?
Speaker 5: Yeah. So the leaf pile gave the rats a centralized
Speaker 5: location to be. And so they're easy to hunt.
Speaker 1: Oh. So bamboo stands are very popular with rats as well, right?
Speaker 1: So Ross has a big bamboo stand that he whacked
Speaker 1: down a second ago. And I told him, I said,
Speaker 1: you got to get that thing out of there because
Speaker 1: rats go in the middle of those bamboo. And when
Speaker 1: the bamboo falls, it makes like a little cave system
Speaker 1: for them. But it brings all the owls to the yard. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Brush piles, leaf piles, they're shelter for a lot of stuff,
Speaker 5: including insects, you know, overwintering. So any of that, that
Speaker 5: can bring the prey population and then bring the predator population.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure they're quite efficient hunters.
Speaker 6: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, it's kind of like having a bird feeder, right?
Speaker 4: You have a bird feeder. It attracts your songbirds or whatever.
Speaker 4: Then the feed that falls on the ground attracts the rats.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah.
Speaker 4: And so the snakes will hang around your bird feeder
Speaker 4: because they know that's where they can eat the rats.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what happened in my house in Geneva. We
Speaker 1: had one of those that stuck to the window so
Speaker 1: you could watch them doing it.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: And saw a gigantic black snake right below it because
Speaker 1: that's exactly what was happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they know they're getting a free meal.
Speaker 3: This whole time you've just been feeding this owl rat
Speaker 3: corpse and I want to say thank you I appreciate
Speaker 3: that it's.
Speaker 6: A little meatball.
Speaker 4: I did want to ask you though Daisy because we've
Speaker 4: had a couple people text us this and I really
Speaker 4: don't know the answer but A couple people texted us
Speaker 4: at 77031 wondering if Hedwig in Harry Potter, was that
Speaker 4: a snowy owl?
Speaker 5: She was supposed to be a snowy owl. I know
Speaker 5: a stupid number of facts about that owl, you guys.
Speaker 2: No, that's cool.
Speaker 5: It was actually like 10 separate owl actors. The main
Speaker 5: one was Gizmo. But they're actually all males. Because in
Speaker 5: snowy owls, the males are pure white. And the females
Speaker 5: actually have a lot of black spots. And they wanted
Speaker 5: her to look pure white. So it's a male owl.
Speaker 5: And if you watch the movie very closely, her eyes
Speaker 5: change color from yellow to orange. And those are the different.
Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
Speaker 1: Okay, there you go.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 1: Who knew they had different eye colors?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so snowy owls can be yellow-eyed or amber-eyed.
Speaker 2: Is there a difference for the yellow and amber?
Speaker 6: No, not really. Just like humans, we might have different
Speaker 6: eye colors.
Speaker 4: I've just noticed because when Jack will put the owls
Speaker 4: up on the fourth box sometimes on our YouTube channel,
Speaker 4: I wonder, well, why are their eyes orange and their
Speaker 4: eyes are yellow?
Speaker 2: But it's just a difference.
Speaker 5: Yeah, screech owls have the same. Billy has, well, her
Speaker 5: pupil is huge right now. She has very yellow eyes.
Speaker 5: But Sanford, I'm sure you remember, he had green eyes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 6: They have a couple different eye colors.
Speaker 1: Somebody said, I guess the owls hunt also rabbits as well.
Speaker 6: Bigger owl shirt.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 1: And we moved in a neighborhood and had bunnies everywhere.
Speaker 1: And then hawks and owls came around and we did
Speaker 1: not have bunnies everywhere.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And even crows will hunt baby bunnies.
Speaker 1: Well, they really do.
Speaker 2: Crows will hunt.
Speaker 6: Well, and snakes as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 3: Incredible.
Speaker 4: So where do folks go to get more information about
Speaker 4: that wish list so that they can join you for
Speaker 4: the market after Thanksgiving, but also hawks and haunts?
Speaker 5: Go to our website. It's audubon.org slash C-B-O-P. And then
Speaker 5: there's an events page. We've got all of that. We also,
Speaker 5: if you want to get like really up close and
Speaker 5: personal with owls, we have owl prowls upcoming. Those are
Speaker 5: exclusive nighttime events. We only take 20 people. It's separately ticketed.
Speaker 5: You get to meet all the owls and you get
Speaker 5: to walk around when they're all hooting and awake.
Speaker 6: And doing stuff.
Speaker 1: At night, that's when they come alive, right? Exactly.
Speaker 2: Oh, that'd be fun.
Speaker 1: That's pretty badass.
Speaker 5: We had our first one, and every owl on property
Speaker 5: was hooting. I couldn't get a word in edgewise, but
Speaker 5: it was a ton of fun. And we had to
Speaker 5: pause them for two years while our old aviary got rebuilt.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6: So we're just finally bringing them back.
Speaker 1: Well, back in swinging. Hit that website again so people
Speaker 1: can find that out.
Speaker 5: It's audubon.org slash C-B-O-P.
Speaker 1: Very nice. Always good seeing you, Daisy. You too. You're
Speaker 1: the absolute best.
Speaker 6: Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1: We love you.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having Billy. Put your hands together for Daisy.
Speaker 4: Yay! Yay!
Speaker 2: At Audubon Center for Birds of Prey.
Speaker 4: And as always, you know, Animal House is generously brought
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Speaker 4: if you've been in any kind of an accident, it'd
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Speaker 2: That's K-L-A-U-S. Thanks, Deb. 407-916-1041.
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