Watch as barn owl chicks Autumn & Fall get ID tags. These metal rings are numbered and registered with the British Trust for Ornithology so that conservationists have a record of each individual bird throughout its life; a process which allows researchers to monitor populations and track owl behavior.
Barn owl chicks
As their names suggest, Autumn & Fall are a late brood of barn owl chicks, the second clutch this year of my resident barn owl pair Gylfie & Dryer. During the process, conducted by BTO-certified bird ringer Jean Thorpe of Ryedale Rehabilitation, both owlets were also weighed and an attempt made to sex them.
Barn owl sexes
Listen to our conversation as Jean & I decide that Autumn, with her 'autumn' colouring' is quite definitely a female, but Fall's feathers still need to fully unfurl from their pin-casings before we can be sure if he/she is a male or female. Female barn owls tend to be more buff-coloured then males and have a darker rim of feathers around their faces. They also have tiny specks on their chest feathers which look like sparkles.
Weights
At 400g (Fall) and 395gs (Autumn) both birds were a healthy weight, which bodes well for these owls as they begin their lives outside the nest so late in the year. After the parent birds Gylfie & Dryer slowed down deliveries to the nest last month, I've been popping extra food for the chicks. The extra mice, funded through the support of followers of this channel, seem to have helped and I'm confident these owlets will be strong as they fledge next week. I expect the owlets to fledge any day soon. Already Autumn has most of her flight feathers and, although much smaller to look at, Fall weighs enough to be able to cope with life outside the nest. It's important to do this as quickly as possible and you'll notice both birds were calm throughout.
