13 June 2025
The barred owl fledglings in Frick Park drew a crowd this week and prompted many questions including “How do you tell the difference between the youngsters and the adult?”
This photo from Wednesday includes the mother and four fledglings but the whole group looks pretty much the same because youngsters are losing their down.
In both immature and adult plumage barred owls have bibs. Below the bib is where they differ.
Immature barred owls have horizontal stripes, sometimes faint, below the bib.
Adult barred owls have vertical stripes below the bib.
How old are the Frick Park barred owl fledglings? UPDATED 14 June Michelle Kienholz has been tracking these owls for years and noted this spring that:
- Barred owl fledglings leave the nest at about 4 to 5 weeks old but cannot fly. On 24-25 May the Frick Park youngsters were branching and walking but definitely not flying.
- Barred owls begin short flights at 6-10 weeks old. What we saw on 11 June were actually short flights. This would put them at about 8 weeks old.
- Longer flights occur at about 12 weeks old. We haven’t seen any long flights yet.
Michelle estimates that the Frick fledglings were 8 weeks old last week (11 June) so they probably hatched in mid April.
p.s. It’s easy to tell the difference when the young are still downy but the Frick Park owls are way beyond this stage.
