{"id":722221,"date":"2026-06-24T00:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/722221\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T00:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:34:09","slug":"thousands-to-watch-barn-owls-grow-up-on-nc-owl-cam-wral-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/722221\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands to watch barn owls grow up on NC owl cam :: WRAL.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

This spring, more than 62,000 people from North Carolina and
\naround the world watched as six barn owl eggs hatched live on the North Carolina Wild Life Resource Commission’s\u00a0“Owl Cam<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

“We have folks who have watched from almost every
\nstate, as well as Canada, Switzerland, Germany, the UK, France, the
\nNetherlands, Portugal, New Zealand, Italy, Estonia, Ireland, Argentina, Sweden,
\nSpain and more,” said Wildlife Conservation Engagement Coordinator Austin
\nHill.<\/p>\n

When asked what he thinks people connect with most while
\nwatching the owls, Hill said the camera offers a rare look into the lives of
\nbarn owls.<\/p>\n

“We don’t see them too often at all, and it’s giving
\npeople a glimpse into the life of a barn owl,” Hill said. “It’s very
\nrare that we’re able to see inside the nest of any creature that’s hidden in a
\ncavity.”<\/p>\n

Hill said viewers enjoyed watching the owlets hatch, grow,
\nlearn to fly and experience all the clumsy moments in between.<\/p>\n

At this time all the owls have fledged, meaning they have all learned how to
\nfly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe oldest three owls fledged on the (June)
\n15th, they\u2019re all females and then the male, the youngest, fledged on
\nthe (June) 20th and you\u2019ll start to see them popping around the
\nbarn,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n

The webcam will continue to show the adult owls delivering
\nfood to the nest as the owls prepare to leave the barn and learn to hunt. <\/p>\n

The
\nyoung owls will learn by watching the behaviors of their parents. Depending on their development, the owls could
\nleave as early as July or as late as September or October.\n<\/p>\n

NCWRC<\/a> installed the owl nest box in 2011.\u00a0
\nIt was installed in an undisclosed remote location in Western North Carolina
\nand used for agency monitoring.<\/p>\n

The idea of having a live webcam was a recent idea
\ncreated during and Educational Division
\nmeeting. <\/p>\n

“It allows us to see what happens in the nest of an
\nelusive raptor and behaviors we wouldn’t be able to observe from outside the
\nbox,” Hill said. “We’re building out some K-12 curriculum to go along
\nwith the camera so it can extend into the classroom.”<\/p>\n

\nOnce the young owls leave, the camera will go offline sometime this fall. <\/p>\n

Hill
\nsaid staff will perform maintenance on the barn, relocate one of the cameras
\nand then put the system back in place in hopes that the same owl pair returns
\nthis winter to begin its courtship and mating season. If that happens, the
\nprocess can start all over again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This spring, more than 62,000 people from North Carolina and around the world watched as six barn owl…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[73712,2256,79,201],"class_list":["post-722221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-nc-wildlife-resources-commission","tag-north-carolina","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}