Peak District Retreat Blog

The four barn owlets seems to be thriving and active.

These barn owlets now range in age from 4 weeks down to 19 days. They are beginning to replace their down with feathers. e.g. look at the video at about 12 seconds in.

The fourth and youngest is not so visible early in the video - it tends to keep underneath its siblings, perhaps for warmth as it is still not fully covered in down. Later in the video it is away from the others and easier to see.

All four eggs hatched, and all four owlets are being fed by the parents. They have all turned white and fluffy, having been naked and pink initially.

The male barn owl is still not very reliable at hunting for them, occasionally not turning up at all and some nights only bringing 2-3 voles (and other nights bringing 10 or more).

The female sometimes also goes out hunting at dusk and/or at dawn, but that is higher risk because in daylight predators may attack either her or the owlets in the box. Again this morning she was chased back to the box by a magpie trying to steal her prey.

The second photo of her with prey was from 06:22 yesterday.

Distinguishing male and female barn owls is difficult from afar, and can still be difficult when closer.

Typically males are a bit smaller than females. Looking at the two photos of our pair taken at the same time, the one closest to the camera looks slightly larger whichever side you look from, i.e. they are both about the same size.

The is male is typically paler than the female, but that is not always so and in this pair the male (on the left) is only slightly paler. e.g. look at the cheek colouring.

Small black spots on the thighs and underwing are more common in females and few or absent in males. It isn't obvious in this view but the male (on the left) has no such white spots, and the female (on the right) has some but not as many as may often occur in females.

Other birds sometimes attack barn owls to try to steal their prey. Perhaps it is easier to do that than to catch prey themselves. Kestrels do that, sometimes successfully.

Here we see our nesting barn owl male mobbed by magpies as he returns to the nest box with a vole. He evaded them and dashed into the box to hand the prey to the female who needs food to feed to the four small owlets. For several minutes afterwards they both sounded warning hisses and the magpies went away and didn't return. But now the magpies know where they are so may make other attempts in future.

Watch the video on YouTube.

The fourth barn owl egg has hatched this morning.

The image attached from 10:42 shows half the shell discarded to the top-left of the female's head, with the owlet still sitting in the other half of the shell! (just below the female's head).

The male owl has not been resident in the box, but visits each night and brings voles to the female. On one or two nights his haul was a bit meagre, but most nights he is bringing enough to feed the female, and also to leave her some more which she tears up to feed to the small owlets.

Over the next few weeks they will grow quite rapidly and surprisingly soon they will be fed whole voles. By about four weeks they usually need larger supplies and the female starts going out to hunt as well.

The mother tries to brood them and keep them warm. She sits with her wings spread a little wider to cover them. As there are now four of them to contain, and those four will grow quite quickly, it is an impossible task and you will more and more often see escapees spilling out from under her, or popping up between her trunk and wings. Watch them on the live camera.

We wouldn't expect the owlets to leave the box until about 56 days after hatching. That is how long it takes for them to grow big enough to be able to fly up to the box entrance/exit, which is deliberately high up so that once they leave the box they can fly back to it instead of being stranded on the ground. (Unlike tawny owls, barn owl parents will ignore and not feed any young on the ground, so they would perish from starvation or predators if they are not strong enough to fly back to the box).

The third egg has hatched this evening.

Not a very clear picture, but there are three hatchlings and one egg.

One more egg to hatch, due in the next 3-5 days.

Earlier this evening a second barn owl egg has hatched.

The third hatching is due in 3-5 days.

The male seems to have upped his game the last couple of days, and following the first hatching he has been bringing more prey to the nest box each night.

The female should not need to leave the box for hunting, which is important so that she can guard the eggs and young against intruders. (The stock doves have already visited again this morning, hoping to be able to take over the box for their nest).

She has been well fed overnight, and she still has at least five more voles lying on the floor of the box which she can eat herself and tear up to feed to the hatchling.

Not yet 48 hours since hatching, the young barn owlet (the pink blob next to the remaining eggs) is clearly growing and moving - a good sign.

The first of our four barn owl eggs hatched about an hour before this photo was taken. It was right on time, having been laid 30 days ago, and the average hatching time being after 30-32 days incubation.

The hatchling is the pink blob under the owl, next to the eggs.

The male barn owl has not been pulling his weight when it comes to hunting and bringing prey to the box. Let's hope he ups his game now that he is a father!

The barn owl nest box continues to attract attention from other birds, even though it is permanently inhabited by a barn owl sitting on four eggs (first hatching due tomorrow).

Here we had a bit of a face-off between a magpie and a stock dove. Then later two swallows showed interest, with one perching on the entrance hole to peer in.

Our male barn owl has been something of an absentee mate. He rarely spends the night in the nest box, and isn't very good at bringing prey to feed the brooding female.

One evening it appeared as though she 'snapped' and stormed out to fetch him back! She must have known where to find him (there aren't many pubs near us...) as she was only gone for 3-4 minutes and then chased him back.

She appeared to shepherd him back into the box, whereupon he started screeching and stamping as if to say “I don't want to be here! I'm not supposed to be here!”

It didn't cure him - he has continued to be absent most of the time, though usually visits overnight and brings a few voles.

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/6gMdgtIHnl8 

Both barn owls left the box briefly to perch on the ledge, with the female to the left and the male to the right.

Inside the box there are four eggs. This may be the full clutch, or their may be more to come - in a previous year there was a 5-day gap between the laying of the penultimate egg and the last egg.

The female barn owl steps aside for a stretch and reveals that she has laid a fourth egg. Is that it, or might there be more to come?

We now have three eggs in the barn owl nest box.

There may yet be more to come, though the male owl is not doing a good job of bringing food to the female and that may inhibit further egg production.

In 2023 there were four eggs, and in 2020 there were six.