Taronga Welcomes Sooty Owl Chick

A very fluffy Lesser Sooty Owl chick has recently joined the Bird Show team. At the moment it looks more like a ball of fluff than an owl, but soon the eight week old male will be fully fledged and ready to fly.

The chick, ‘Griffin’ came to Taronga from Featherdale Wildlife Park and is being hand-raised by Bird Show Supervisor Matt Kettle, who says that the chick was a big hit when he started taking him home.

“As soon as I walked in the door with him and set him down in his box, my four year old daughter came up and started telling him a story.”

“At home he stretches out in my lap while I watch TV and I give him a bit of a scratch. While nice for us, this is actually part of his training. This human interaction is important as he’ll be doing encounters and flying in the show one day so it’s essential that he’s prepared for anything,” said Matt.

Griffin is growing up fast and is already starting to lose his fluffy down feathers. “Like most babies he spends most of his time sleeping, but he’s starting to explore his surroundings more and he’s jumping off things getting ready to fly.”

Sooty Owls are Australia’s most nocturnal species of owl, preferring very dark and dense rainforest habitat. Lesser Sooty Owls like Griffin are found in Northern Queensland; however the more common Sooty Owl ranges from Sydney, Victoria and into Papua New Guinea. Despite their wide range of habitat, it is very rare to actually see one of these birds in the wild.