The darker face and belly of this bird would indicate that she is probably a female. Her nest was destroyed when the farmer needed to break into that stack of hay; she was the 'runt' of the clutch, nearly comatose, and only about half the size of her two siblings when found. They do not know if she was unable to compete for food with her much bigger nest mates or if her parents sensed there was something wrong and simply did not feed her. As she was growing, she was always a couple of weeks behind the other two developmentally. Both wings had 'green stick fractures' of the radius and ulna (breaks that don't go all the way through the bone), causing a deformity of both wings and making it impossible for her to fly well enough for release. Her balance is good, though, and she gets around well. She was transferred to CRC in June 2008 when she was about 2 months old. (Nani is glove-trained.)
Soren The pale coloration of this bird makes it probable that it is a male. When he was less than a week old, his nest was disturbed accidentally when a farmer moved some hay bales; his siblings were all killed and he fell awkwardly, breaking two toes on his right foot and pulling a muscle in his left leg. He could not stand nor even sit back on his hocks for weeks. The intensive care he needed, and the lack of other barn owls at such an impressionable age, caused him to imprint on humans. Human imprints are not releasable, as they do not relate to their own species, are drawn to people and/or become very territorial and aggressive towards people, and are very likely to get hurt. He was transferred to CRC in June 2008 at the age of 2 months.
