Meet Our Foster Parents & Educational Birds

All Foster and Education birds are non-releasable rescue birds that have been added to WAH’s Special Purpose Possession permit with US Fish & Wildlife and AZ Game & Fish

Ariel & Antar

Great Horned Owl Pair

Ariel & Antar have only been paired since the end of 2020. Before this pairing, Antar was a foster parent along with WAH’s primary GHO foster momma, “Scheherazade.” Sadly, Scheherazade passed after almost two decades of fostering hundreds of owlets with Antar. After allowing some time to pass, we introduced him to sweet Ariel and it has been owl-heaven ever since.

Dreidel & Topsy

Barn Owl Pair

Dreidel (front) is a foster dad extraordinaire, taking the lead on fostering the young nestlings (left-back corner) after his long-time mate, Spinner, passed away. Spinner taught Dreidel all the right skills! Dreidel has a new mate, Topsy (left-lower corner), an experienced foster mom who is excellent for older fledgling barn owls.

Teena, Nicole, & Thistle

Barn Owls

These 3 female Barn Owls have a combined 48 years of fostering experience and are experts in fostering older Barn Owl fledglings.

Jasmine & Aladdin

Great Horned Owl Pair

Here is Jasmine & Aladdin (she’s the bigger one).
Jasmine was a solo foster mom until she met her mate, Aladdin, and now they foster the older fledglings.

Meadow

Great Horned Owl

Meadow is a single foster mom who teaches the older juvenile fledglings to hunt when given live food in a large flighted cage. This is a critical life stage before being released.

Photographed as part of Joel Sartore’s Photo Ark project for National Geographic.

Frosti

Great Horned Owl

Frosti is a single foster mom who teaches the older juvenile fledglings to hunt when given live food in a large flighted cage. This is a critical life stage before being released.

Tafi & Bolo

Harris’s Hawk Pair

Tafi is the resident Queen of our foster moms. She is 21-years-old and has fostered Red-Tailed, Swainson’s, Zone-Tailed, Common Black, and of course Harris Hawks. Tafi offers much-needed TLC to new nestlings. Her first mate, Degoo, passed in 2018. Bolo has taken over as her consort. Photo: left to right, foster baby, Tafi, and Bolo.

Jasper

Harris’s Hawk

Partnered with Izzy. These two paired up after Izzy spent many years being mentored by Tafi. Izzy & Jasper take in older fledglings from Tafi & Bolo.
(Picture coming)

Izzy

Harris’s Hawk

Partnered with Jasper. More info coming soon.

Brandy

Copper’s Hawk

Brandy helps keep the rowdy juvenile Cooper’s Hawk in line when we get a big intake in June.

Maggie (Mags)

Great Horned Owl

Maggie is our Hospital Office Manager. She keeps all the humans in line and micro-manages all activity from the safety of the edge of her kennel. This is where she is happiest. More about Maggie is coming soon.

In loving Memory – Tribute to Our Beloved Past Fosters

Chitter & Moogley

Great Horned Owl Pair

Chitter (female) and Moogley (male) were with us for 18 and 16 years, respectively, and became a mated pair and devoted foster parents during this time. Both were adults when they came into WAH, so we do not know exactly how old they were, but we believe they were likely well into their twenties when they passed away. For the recent few years, Chitter and Moogley were semi-retired foster parents as we gave them only a few older fledglings at a time. They were so faithful to each other that they passed within a few hours of each other from natural causes in the summer of 2023. It is highly unusual for a mated/foster pair to pass on the same day. They had just recently had a check-up and were doing well. We believe they chose to go together. Photo: Chitter (center) surrounded by 7 owlet fledglings.

Chia and Mari

Barn Owl Foster Parents

A favorite photo of Chia, the avian forerunner of the foster parenting program at Wild At Heart and in the state of Arizona, and his mate Mari (front). The success of Chia encouraged other Arizona rehabbers to utilize non-releasable birds and mammals as surrogate parents.