FOUR baby barn owls have been given a second chance of family life after they were placed in the care of feathery foster parents.

The chicks were thought to be just a couple of days old when they were brought to the RSPCA Stapeley Grange Centre, in May, after the building they were nesting was knocked down.

For the first ten days they were hand fed using tweezers but staff agreed their best chance of survival would be in the care of another nest.

this led to an urgent search for barn owl fosterers who could cope with the demand of an extra mouth to feed.

However, with the help of South Cheshire Barn Owl Group, they found four breeding pairs with chicks of the same age.

Each rescued chick was carefully slipped into a separate nest and then left to settle into their new families – where their new parents fed and cared for their foster chicks as they did their own.

David Bromant, from the barn owl group, said it was the first time they had fostered out so many chicks at one.

He added: “We’ve never done it on this scale before and we were really pleased it went so well.

“It was the simplest thing to do.

“We literally just sneaked the chicks into the nest and they immediately snuggled up to their new siblings.

“As long as they are compatible with the age of their existing chicks barn owl parents will just accept foster chicks as their own.

“They arrive at the nest with food and just feed to whichever mouths appear.”

The group returned to ring all the owls in July, so they can be followed ad monitored in the wild and found that all four chicks had survived. All the chicks have now left the nest and are fully fledged back into the wild.

Maxine Bland, RSPCA wildlife surpervisor, said: “They were quite possibly the smallest chicks we have ever had a Stapeley.

“It is not that we couldn’t feed and care for them at the centre but nothing substitutes for parents of their own species.

“Further down the line their survival chances are greater if they are fostered and the younger they when this happens the better.”