big age difference in owl nestlings?

[Peter Ruprecht]

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

[Marjorie Joy]

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 <cob...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



--
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+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/364771752.424942.1588974360436%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Scott]

Yes,

I have seen GHO's lay one egg every three days, and I have see them weight up to and over a week or longer to lay a second or third egg.

It will be interesting to see what the parents do with the owlets when the oldest owlets begin branching. But GHO's are very good parents for the most part.

Scott Rashid
Estes Park

--
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+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/364771752.424942.1588974360436%40mail.yahoo.com.

---

This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com

[Peter Ruprecht]

To update on this unexpected observation - the apparent smaller nestling has not been seen for several days now.  The larger fledglings seem to be in nearby trees most of the time and the adults do not seem to be attending the nest any more. 

Thanks to everyone who offered feedback on the situation.  Sorry I don't have a happier ending to report.

 -Peter

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/e2acb8c5-278c-d8c4-f036-fa715ae07066%40frii.com.