i have a barn owl box in one of my barns and have seen many clutches born and fledged over the last 7 years. a couple of years ago i photgraphed a daily diary of their hatch to fledge.
here are a couple of shots
1st born.
barnowls are not all hatced at once. they will be hatched aver a period of up 2-3 weeks . this is to keep from overwhelming the mom and dad as far as feeding goes as well as insure a strong progeny. they may hatch 1-4 depending on food supply for the same reason. i was lucky in that the food was good and mom and dad had no problems with more than one.
it was a surprise to see more added as the days went by.
as you can see the one in the back on the right is older and more devloped than the others
a new fledge.
they go out of the box and sit in the rafters for severel days while testing their wings and finally getting the courage to fly to a nearby tree. they are very clumbsey at first and with such a large wingspan in a tight place are often prone to accidents. i have seen several die over the years as a result. the parents will do their best to feed them if they are still close to the nest and often times save them.
but alas, not always.
it was 6 weeks between the first and last shot.
