Owl chick being raised by hand after losing its father

By Elizabeth Hunter via SWNS

A month-old owl chick is being raised by hand after losing its father and being abandoned by its mother.

The Tengmalm's owl chick was born just under four weeks ago in the home incubator of Trystan Williams, Head Keeper at the Scottish Owl Centre in West Lothian.

The chick's father died shortly after its mother laid the eggs - causing the mother to instinctively abandon the eggs for her own survival.

"With owls, the males do the hunting for the family, so if there’s no male to bring food back to her, she will just abandon her eggs so that she can survive," explained Trystan.

"Sadly, the chick's father died just after the mum finished laying her eggs. She abandoned the eggs, so I put them in an incubator in the house.

"Nearly four weeks ago, he was born here at the center."

Tengmalm's owl, known as a boreal owl in North America, are commonly found in coniferous forests throughout the United States, as well as mountain ranges, including the Alps and the Rockies.

But the chick, which is yet to be named, is set to become part of the team at the Scottish Owl Centre permanently - with a job lined up on their flying display squad.

"Rearing this one so far is going very well, but because it’s all on its own and has only got humans to feed it, it thinks it’s going to be a little human," said Trystan.

"This means we can’t put it as part of a breeding pair anymore, so we’ll have to look after him as one of our display birds.

"We have the largest collection of owls on view to the public anywhere in the world, with 50 different species of owl here.

"We do flying displays each day, so people get to see the birds flying around and hear about the species in our talks.

"When he’s old enough, we’ll put him in our flying displays, and he’ll have a job on the team!"

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