2nd Eurasian eagle-owl chick hatches at National Aviary
By Madeline Bartos
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A second Eurasian eagle-owl chick has hatched at the National Aviary.
The new chick arrived on March 21, a few days after its sibling. The newest baby is hanging out in the aviary’s Avian Care Center window in The Charity Randall Foundation Eagle Hall.
The first chick weighed 55 grams when it hatched, which is about the size of a small lime. The second weighed almost 51 grams.
They chicks won’t be small for long, though. The aviary says eagle-owl chicks grow quickly and will be considered fully grown by eight weeks of age. And fully grown is pretty big — the Eurasian eagle-owl is one of the biggest owl species in the world, weighing as much as 9 pounds with a wingspan of up to 6 1/2 feet.
There’s no way to tell just by looking at them whether they’re male or female, so a DNA feather test will be performed to determine the chicks’ sex.
Before these two, the owlet’s parents, X and Dumbledore, have hatched 10 chicks at the National Aviary.
Visitors can catch a peak at the new babies in the care center’s window. “Witness double the fluffiness, double the charm, and double the cuteness as these siblings grow right before your eyes!” the aviary wrote on Facebook.
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