AN OWL born at a Hampshire sanctuary is believed to be the first black barn owl ever born in Britain.

Sooty began raising the eyebrows of staff and management at the New Forest Owl Sanctuary at Crow near Ringwood the minute he first cracked his way out of his egg.

"We had some eggs hatch and I thought 'That's strange, this one's got black feet.' Then his feathers started to grow and he got darker and darker," said sanctuary owner Bruce Berry.

Sooty is one of five born to a pair of European barn owls and was the third one to hatch. The other four have the normal barn owl colouring of their parents.

The cause of Sooty's colour is a condition known as melanism and the chances of it occurring are 100,000 to one against.

He was taken away from the four other chicks when he was just a few days old and hand-reared to make sure that he was not bullied by his brothers and sisters.

"But," said Mr Berry, "he is just as healthy as the others and is a bit more dominant and possibly even a little bit stronger. This can happen when you get colour mutation. He is becoming quite a draw here and there is no reason why he shouldn't live a long and healthy life like any other barn owl.

Ian Peters of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds confirmed that melanistic barn owls were extremely rare.

"I wouldn't say he is the only one ever to be born in Britain, but I would say he is the only one we have recorded in the last 50 to 100 years."