Following the post HERE on Ireland's oldest Barn Owl from summer 2015, the longevity record has been broken once more by another Kerry bird.
Ireland's oldest wild Barn Owl, near Tralee, Co. Kerry, 20th June 2016 (Photo: M.O'Clery, Under licence from NPWS).
This ringed male took up residence at a nest box near Tralee, after the previous veteran male was killed on the Tralee Bypass (see this post HERE), and it was finally possible to read the ring number a few days ago.
He turns out to have been ringed as a chick at a site in east Kerry, about 20 km away, in summer 2008. At eight years of age, this is now the longest-lived wild Barn Owl so far recorded in Ireland.
