Weather confuses birds

The mild weather has lulled some of DZG’s feathered residents into thinking it’s time to start laying eggs.

Keepers have discovered the female Northern white-faced owl has taken to her nesting box and is already sitting on a clutch of eggs.

Bird Section Leader, Kellie Piper, said: “We wouldn’t expect our birds to begin their breeding season for another few months, but the unseasonably mild weather we have had so-far this year has tricked some of them into thinking it is springtime, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on them and their eggs over the next few weeks.”

Northern white-faced owls usually use abandoned nests to lay between two to four eggs.

They typically nest from May to November and females will incubate their eggs for around 30 days.

Both parents will care for the young, who are usually brown in colour, with a grey-brown facial disk.