The world’s largest owl laid eggs in a Belgian man’s planter box and now the enormous birds won’t leave!
When a Belgian man recently heard noisy birds on his balcony planter, he assumed it was those pesky pigeons again. But when he finally went to take a look, he discovered three huge owl hatchlings.
With a little research, he learned they are members of the world’s largest owl species – Eurasian eagle owls – whose wing span can reach 5-feet when they are full grown.
Eagle owls are rare in heavily human-populated central Europe, and remain mostly in Russia and Scandinavia, and are relatively difficult to photograph in nature.
But not these chicks. They’ve been hanging outside Jos Baart’s 3rd-story apartment window all spring, giving him a front row view of their impressive growth.
Baart says they spend a lot of time staring at each other and that they especially seem fascinated when he turns on the television, lining up and attentively watching it with him.
We could hardly believe it when we got a message from Jos Baart telling us that Europe’s biggest owl, the Eurasian eagle-owl, had made a nest in a planter in front of his window. Not only that, she had also hatched three giant chicks!#vroegevogels #springwatch #owl pic.twitter.com/gz1odkFLYC
— Vroege Vogels (@VroegeVogels) May 18, 2020
Meanwhile, their mother owl keeps an eye on them from behind the foliage in the planter.
Baart says he’ll miss them when they are full grown leave him with an empty nest, and hopes they’ll come again next spring.