Ant
Our lovely little barn owl was one of the first birds we bred, his parent still live at Jim’s house and his siblings fly at other collections. He’s a favourite of our private experiences so although you won’t see him in our displays you may have the opportunity to fly him if you book one of our flying experiences. Ant is now four years old and as such an pro, although he will potentially live into his 20s.
Pirate
One of the more unusually species we have here at the welsh owl garden pirate is a silvery cheeked hornbill. He’s a lovely boy who loves an neck scratch and to come out flying. He also loves interacting with the public, as one of our more intelligent species he will call at anyone who walks past his aviary, he learnt quickly this makes people stop and pay attention to him.
Thor
Another of our exotic species, Thor is a ground hornbill. Although he is called thor we are almost positive he’s actually a she, we are hoping to get her a partner though so a DNA test will be required first. Thor is also a bird we fly in a lawn afternoon display, she does spent alot of the time just wondering around, she is a ‘ground’ hornbill after all and flying takes alot of effort, weighting just over 2kgs it’s hard for her to get off the ground and she’s a bit clumsy on landing.
Percy
Percy is a superstar of our morning display in the owl garden, he’s a young spectacle owl at only just over a year and so going through some colour changes at the moment, he will look completely different next year as an adult. He is also one of our noisier and more excitable owls, as he’s still so young he calls to lots of people, sort of like a noisy toddler who wants attention.
Merlin
Merlin is another owl who is very happy to fly to lots of different people and as such he flies on our experiences. As a great horned owl he’s one of our biggest flying owls. If you visit on a warm quiet day you may hear Merlin hooting with our Magellan horned owl pair.
Fluffy (mcfluffball)
Fluffy was named by the bosses young children , hence the mcfluffball which the other keepers are all very glad he doesn’t need to hear to get his attention. Fluffy also flies on our experiences he’s a very fast little bird and very fun to fly. He’s also young, again about a year old however he seems to have learnt his adult call and so you can hear him telling you want he is, as his call sounds like he’s saying “boobook” which is his species.
Henry
Henry and Dyson are brother and sister Asian brown wood owls, they live and fly together in our displays. You can tell which is bigger by their size as Dyso is almost twice the size of Henry, as with most birds of prey the girl is always the biggest.
Dyson
Henry and Dyson are brother and sister Asian brown wood owls, they live and fly together in our displays. You can tell which is bigger by their size as Dyso is almost twice the size of Henry, as with most birds of prey the girl is always the biggest.
Yoshi
Yoshi is a laughing kookaburra, a species originally for Australia though Yoshi is actually Scottish. He likes so have everything just the way he likes it and gets very annoyed if you do things to slow for his liking. As the largest member of the kingfisher family Yoshi can catch food in the air and we are hoping to teach him to fish. So watch out for his new skills in the morning display. Although a laughing kookaburra, Yoshi doesn’t tend to laugh often but you can bet you’ll hear pirate reply if he does!
Hedwig
Hedwig is our snowy owl, he’s fantastic when he flies on the castle lawn in our afternoon displays but sometimes he gets a little freaked out and if so will fly off into the woodland. This tends to happen if he miss times his landing and he gets a bit confused but once hes into the swing of things he happy circuits around the arena giving everyone a view of his lovely white plumage and a display of his (typical owl) silent flight.