Barn Owls are Broody

We are very excited to tell you that hansel and gretel are sitting eggs at the Sanctuary. They’ve been spending a lot of time in their nest area and engaging in mutual preening and cheek rubbing as part of courtship and pair-bonding over the last few months. At first we thought they were just being affectionate with each other but when Kate investigated why Hansel was taking food into their nest area, she was amazed to discover an egg. Over the next few days one egg became seven. An amazing clutch as usually they lay between 4 and six eggs.

Most bird species don’t start to incubate their eggs until the clutch is complete, so the eggs hatch at more or less the same time. Barn Owls are different though as they begin incubation as soon as the first egg is laid and lay additional eggs over a period of around 8-21 days. After 31-32 days’ incubation, the eggs hatch every 2-3 days, usually in the order they were laid. The age difference between the oldest and youngest nestlings can be as much as three weeks. This  helps reduce food demand in the wild so it can be spread it over a longer period. The female does all the incubation and the male provides all the food until the young are around 3 weeks old. Barn owls tend to only breed once a year but sometimes they can have two clutches and records do exist of triple brooding.

We are watching everyday in the hope of signs of babies. Still nothing yet but we will let you know if anything develops.