Wit woo: Check out Boomah, Abu Dhabi's first owl cafe

Written by:
Miles Buckeridge
8th March 2021

Boomah is more than OK…

The region’s first owl cafe is doing a barnstorming trade in coffee and close-up cuddly encounters with a collection of feathered baristas.

A… Coffee ‘roosterie’ if you will…

Boomah is located next to AlSeef Village Mall, close to the Eastern Mangroves, it’s open daily from 2pm to 10pm.

Owl about the love

If you’re concerned about the well-being of the birds, you need not be. The animals are cared for by a team of highly skilled owl specialists who are on hand to look after the birds as well as lead interactions with the cafe’s guests.

These owl experts take visitors on educational tours, insisting on certain rules (like being quiet) to help make the birds comfortable. You’ll have to wash your hands with special owl-friendly hand sanitiser before going ahead and tickling a tawny (or any of the other 10 species of owl), and the cafe’s climate is carefully controlled to make it suitable for all the winged inhabitants.

Boomah is strictly against hunting, and is clear that none of their birds are for sale. The cafe’s owls were all hand-raised by humans, meaning they’re as relaxed with us as we ought be with them. The owls are free to fly at night, and because the cafe only opens at 2pm, they get a proper lie-in during the day (16 hours of freedom).

Hedwig… Is that you?

Before we swoop into those super cute owl pics, some quick owl facts for you: Owls can swivel their head through 270º, doing so actually cuts the blood flow to their brains — but through some elastic anatomy, they’re able to use reservoirs to ensure they don’t blackout from a self-administered sleeper hold; the collective noun for owls is ‘a parliament’ of owls, taken from a description in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia; the smallest owl in the world is the elf owl, measuring in at just five to six inches tall and it sometimes nests in cacti (small but cunning); what big eyes they have — so big in fact, the northern hawk owl can spot voles (their primary prey) up to half a mile away; and finally the name ‘Hedwig’, Harry’s owl in the Harry Potter series is derived from Hedvig – a Scandinavian name meaning warrior.

Enough trivia? Bring out the hooters…

Nothing to see here, just a bunch of owls chilling out next to some skyscrapers, looking like they’re about to drop the freshest future-sounds techno EP of 2021.