I’ve not had experience with that happening for owls in the 10 years I have been monitoring raptor nests for CPW. However, I have seen something similar with kestrels in a nest box behind my house in Pueblo West. About 6 years ago, 3 young kestrels fledged from the box, one every other day as usual, and 2 weeks later a 4th one popped out to join the other 3. Since we can’t see into the box, there’s no way to know for sure that there was actually that much difference in age, but the late one looked much less mature than her siblings, with a few pinfeathers and a slightly shorter tail.
Cheers, Margie Joy Pueblo West, CO Sent from my iPhone > On May 8, 2020, at 3:47 PM, 'Peter Ruprecht' via Colorado Birds > <cobirds@googlegroups.com> wrote: > > > Hi Cobirders, > > I've been watching a Great Horned Owl nest near my house in Superior. The > nestlings are getting pretty big and starting to move out of the nest and > onto nearby branches. However, a couple nights ago I thought I saw a small > fluffy white head sticking up among the much bigger other nestlings. And > then today someone sent me a photo which I think pretty clearly shows a young > GHOW nestling (totally downy, maybe 2 weeks old at most) in there. > > Has anyone ever heard of such an age difference in GHOW nestlings? This is > clearly not just the usual asynchronous hatching. I thought perhaps the > small one could have been brought in as prey from another nest but it seemed > to be sitting up and alive. I didn't see anything like this in a quick > google search. > > Thanks, > Peter Ruprecht > Superior > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/364771752.424942.1588974360436%40mail.yahoo.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/B2067239-4E2E-4FF5-8771-B79AF2058688%40juno.com.
