SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Size of Broods

We have seen concern in our brood and other broods of owlets about the smallest owlet and why its so much smaller then the others, and if it’s OK and maybe something is wrong with it.

Most bird species don't start to incubate (warm) their eggs until the clutch is complete so the eggs hatch at more or less the same time.
 Barn Owls begin incubation as soon as the first egg is laid and additional eggs are added every two to three days. This is termed "asynchronous" hatching.
( do I see a trivia question here ) The average hatching success rate is 4.5 and the age difference between the oldest and youngest nestlings can be as much as three weeks.

Compared to other owl species, Barn Owls lay small eggs (in relation to their body size) and they lay lots of them.

But in the end they all turn out to be the same size when they're all grown up.