Happy Owloween 2026!

Horst the Eurasian Eagle-Owl stands on the kitchen floor in front of a fridge. He's freshly bathed and blow-dried, and models a navy-blue towel patterned with slate and white stripes, cloaked over his head like he's a royal mage. His glowing orange eyes watch camera from below tall plumicorns, which jut out in a Y-shape equiangular to his beak, like a honeycomb vertex or an inverted Mercedes 3-pointed star. He looks rather dapper.

31st of Owltober

and we’ve saved one of the best for last!

Horst's horns are flat, like a deflated letter M that curls around the side of his head. Like a wannabe Ultron. He's wrapped in a towel mostly dark-fuchsia with stripes in hues of yellow, pale mint, and light pink.
Sans towel, stood on the floor is Horst looking up at camera with orange eyes.

“Horst” the Eurasian Eagle-Owl was found at a German landfill / recycling facility completely covered in motor oil and unable to fly. He was taken in by a local falconer, Heike Knesebeck, who washed him with dish soap to get the bulk of the oil removed. The original video gained widespread attention (mostly on TikTok and from German news outlets) due to Horst’s grumpy expressions while being shampooed and blow-dried. Following his weeks of many many baths, his rehabilitation was complete. He was checked over by a vet and finally Horst was released back into the wild.

Original post – 07 Oct 2026
Photos by falconer Heike Knesebeck
who works with Hilfe für Lüneburger Wildtiere
located in Lüneburg, Lower Saxony, Germany 🇩🇪

Note: Hilfe für Lüneburger Wildtiere has a Facebook page, but most of this content is direct from Ms Knesebeck who is active on Instagram (a little) and TikTok (a lot).

Horst is not so dapper here, drenched in motor oil and contained in a ply box. His pupils are contracted, with one eye squinting a little, and face feathers are scraggly and unkempt. A total mess.
Horst is half-wrapped in a towel, being transported to his new lodgings. His feathers are completely matted with brown and black sludge.
Horst on admission, covered in motor oil
He's in a bathtub upon a fuchsia towel being sprayed with warm water from a detachable shower head. He does not look amused. Ceramic tiles line the wall behind.
Close-up of Horst sopping wet. His eyebrows have the shape of a very angry V. The photographer is lucky to be alive.
Post shower, Horst is draped in a nautical-themed towel, blue and white with anchor patterns. His toes stretch wide so he can walk across the kitchen floor with the towel flowing behind him like a wedding dress.
Another bathtub picture of Horst in sudsy water. His plumicorns are shaped like very tall devil horns, or filaments in a light bulb. His eyebrows are less pronounced, eyes wide and circular instead of angular half-moons.
Another day another towel, this time a dark earthy taupe. Horst stands atop the towel, staring down the blow-drier aimed at him from bottom frame. His eyebrows have resumed their steep angles of immense anger and distrust.
More blow-drying.
Horst is waist deep in the bathtub. A hand pours soapy water from a plastic cup over his feathers behind. He doesn't look like he's enjoying it, rather, it's a look of near resignation as if he's getting used to this now.
One of Horst’s many baths
Wrapped in a shadowy grey towel, his glare burns with absolute rage. A relentless force of vengeance, he answers to no higher power: he is the judge, jury, and executioner of souls. Face him, and know that your story ends here.
Horst is fully wrapped around his face with a stone-grey towel, looking like a cat stuck in the arm of a long-sleeve top. He has a rat in his beak. A literal rat.
Horst peers out of his wooden enclosure with a single suspicious eye.
Horst is perched in his ply enclosure, where he presumably sleeps at night, and cranes his neck to peer out from the shadows into daylight. Eyes dilated, he spots (out of frame) a long horizontal branch. He's about to take flight for it, as part of reconditioning his flight muscles so he may soon be released to the wild.

Link to donate to Hilfe für Lüneburger Wildtiere for those willing and able.

xo owlsintowels

💛🦉

SpeciesCommon NameMore info
Bubo bengalensisEurasian Eagle-OwlWiki link

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