Baby barn owls are feathering up

They’ve been bundles of fluff but now our baby barn owls are growing up and getting feathers.  First it was beige feathers round their faces, which makes them look like proper owls, now it is tail feathers.  These are beautiful and quite long already.  Hansel’s feathers are a deeper gold than Gretels.  Hers are lighter in colour.   The owlets wing spans are amazingly big for such small birds, we’ll be moving them to bigger quarters in the near future.

The difference in their personalities is quite marked.   Hansel is more adventurous and the first to come out of the den – Gretel always hangs back and only ventures out when it’s feeding time.  They are both still vocal with clicks when they see us and hisses when we don’t feed them quickly enough!