Bunnies hide under bed as unexpected owl visitor breaks into North Vancouver home

A North Vancouver couple were woken in the night by a surprise guest, after an owl flew in through their window, and made itself at home on their couch.

It was a quick succession of emotions felt by one North Vancouver couple after a surprise visitor broke into their home in the dead of night this week. First fear, then concern, and finally, awe.

Sue Cook and her husband were awoken at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday by the sound of a loud thud coming from their living room. Assuming it was one of their bunnies adventuring under the cover of night – one half of their duo is a “little bit clumsy,” says Cook – she had initially dismissed the noise and drifted back off to sleep.

“The next thing, I heard all this banging and clattering with the blinds, which I knew wasn’t (the rabbits) because of course they are too small,” she says.

Cook inspected the living room to find a “huge thing” flapping around, hitting the ceiling, and crashing into the blinds.

“It was like something out of a horror movie. This big flapping thing that was all dark … like something out of The Birds,” she says, referencing Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘60s horror.

It was only when the creature had flown into a nearby mirror, stunning itself in the process, that it slowed enough for the couple to realize what their uninvited guest was – a large owl.

As the bird came to and began exploring the living room – returning to the blinds and tottering about on the floor behind a nearby sideboard – Cook and her husband decided to give it some space so it could, hopefully, find its way back out the open patio door.

They returned to the bedroom, where their two free-roam bunnies were hiding under the bed, before peering back in 15 minutes later.

“It flew out, flew back into the mirror again and stunned itself,” says Cook.

Despite the reflective hazard in the living room and the presence of two strangers, Cook says the owl showed no desire to leave and instead hopped around the condo, eventually landing on the arm of the sofa where it looked “quite at home” sitting, and watching.

“It was looking around and looking at the back door, which it didn’t seem bothered about flying out of,” she says.

“It looked quite happy sitting there just looking at us.”

Eventually Cook’s husband was able to usher the raptor out of the home where it sat on the railing of the balcony before ultimately flying off into the night, leaving the couple to reflect on their unusual encounter.

Once the shock had subsided, wonder began to set in.

“People pay to look at these animals, and then we’ve just got one sat in our living room, it was unreal,” she says.

The encounter, unique enough, was made even more surprising when they considered the small space, an open single patio door on a balcony sandwiched by two others, that the owl had managed to fly into.

Its “precision was brilliant,” she says. Cook suspects the owl must have located the prey within the apartment and made a beeline for what could have been a nice double-dinner. Her two pets are “pretty good-looking rabbits,” laughs Cook.

“We were absolutely in awe of this amazing looking bird, it was just beautiful.”