Community Corner

Nesting Owls Choose Unique Home on Peninsula

A Burlingame hotel is playing host to the birds.

By Bay City News

A Burlingame hotel is welcoming back some unusual guests—a family of barn owls.

A nesting pair of barn owls have hatched four babies on the balcony of room 1141 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Waterfront, hotel officials said this month. 

This is the second year the owls have nested outside what hotel officials are now calling the "Hoot Suite." 

Because barn owls are protected birds of prey, hotel officials say they have not moved them and try to keep the room on the Concierge Level vacant. When the hotel is sold out and the room is needed, the hotel asks guests to be respectful of the birds. 

In celebration of the barn owls, children staying at the hotel are being offered a complimentary stuffed owl toy, as are guests in room 1141. 

The breeding seasons for barn owls typically starts in March or early April, but breeding can occur at any time of year when food is plentiful, according to hotel officials. The female usually lays four to seven eggs, and stays in the nest to care for the eggs and chicks while the male brings food to the nest.

Six baby barn owls were hatched in the same location in 2012 (pictured above) Read more here.

Copyright © 2013 by Bay City News, Inc. – Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.


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