ML104596451

Age

Not specified

Sex

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Observation details

An amazing experience! We arrived at the barn owl box just before sunset and decided to park and wait in our vehicle. Having never seen a barn owl before, we were excited at the possibility of glimpsing one. Just after sunset, we were rewarded with two barn owl faces showing in the window. About ten or fifteen minutes later, one of the barn owls perched in the window and took flight to a nearby tree. The second owl popped up into the window, with a third showing its face! The second owl then flew from the box and joined the first in the tree. To our surprise, after the second owl left, a fourth one popped into view! The third owl (we believe to be a fledgling) poked its head out the window and seemed to be looking around and calculating how to join its parents. It was bobbing and circling its head repeatedly. After a couple of minutes of that, the third owl perched in the window and took a sort of clumsy flight to the same tree as the first two. After it left, a fifth owl face came into view! The fourth and fifth owls spent the next several minutes looking out of the box, seemingly trying to figure out how to join their parents and sibling. After a lot of head circling, the fourth owl perched in the window, but was much less confident than the third. At one point, it seemed to lose its balance and nearly fell from the box! It held on with talons and used its wings to prevent the fall, then retreated into the box. A moment later it was back perching, and after more calculating, it launched and took a downward arc toward the trees (we cheered inside the car). Light was fading quickly by now, but we hoped to see the fifth one fly as well. Despite perching in the window multiple times, it retreated back to the box every time. Several times it stood sideways in the window and stuck one wing out and flapped. We ended up leaving before it left the box, simply because we could barely see it anymore. As the last one was contemplating leaving, on of the parents went on top of the box seemingly trying to encourage it. That parent then flew to a tree near us and began screaming, which we had never heard before. Overall an awesome experience! We are presuming that the five owls in the box are a family, with the first two the parents. They were quick to leave the box, waited in the trees, flew around to several trees nearby, and also landed on top of the corn crib and the nest box. They also showed good flying ability. We then figured the last three were their young who were hesitant leaving the box and seemed clumsy in their flight. I read that young barn owls may return to their nest box to roost even after their first flight. Based on the behavior we saw, we're wondering if this was close to their first flight (if not the first, after seeing the fifth owl so unsure of flying). Hopefully the last owl joined them later in the night!

Technical information

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3483 pixels x 2322 pixels

Original file size

3.69 MB