A barred owl chick yawns while resting in a cottonwood tree in Federal Way. The chick, along with its two siblings, spent most of the afternoon last week resting and waiting on their mother to bring them food.

If you come across any young bird in the wild, the best approach is to leave it alone. Barred owls, in particular, show little fear of humans, and that tendency often puts them in danger.

The raptor enthusiasts at http://www.owlcam.com write that it is dangerous for young owls "when an unknowing human finds and 'rescues' a flightless owlet that appears to have been abandoned by its parents. It is far more likely that the human has simply scared the parents away and that they are waiting in the distance for the human to leave."