Little owl behaviour

First little owl egg hatched this morning in nest box number two; however, having said that whether or not it was the first egg I cannot say for sure but the female was seen carrying off an egg shell. Is that normal behaviour I hear you say, in short no, since they normally eat the egg shells for the calcium content as indeed do Sparrow hawks, but then again this particular behaviour isn’t set in stone since I’ve seen Sparrow hawks carrying off egg shells too. However, it seems only to occur in certain population in my experience so it could be a built in response in the individual bird. Not to be confused with other species that carry off egg shells for hygiene reasons, accidental injury to chicks in the nest, and to avoid predators finding the egg shells therefor nest.



Nonetheless, some interesting reading here...



britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_files/V35/V35_N08/V35_N08_P162_169_A031.pdf