Barn Owls (Tytonidae)
Owl Information ... Owl Species ... Owl Photo Gallery
The Barn Owl (Tyto alba) or, to distinguish it from relatives, Common Barn Owl, is an owl in the barn owl family Tytonidae. This is one of the two groups of owls, the other being the typical owls, Strigidae. (Any member of the family Tytonidae is sometimes referred to as a Barn Owl.)
These owls are also commonly referred to as church owl, golden owl, rat owl and stone owl. Sometimes they are also called monkey-faced owls because of their appearance.
- Photo Credit: The top photo and the photo to the right are courtesy of 1SG Douglas W McNeil who is currently stationed in Iraq (FOB Delta) . More of his barn owl photos can be viewed on this page.
Description
These are pale, long-winged, long-legged owls, 33-39 cm in length with an 80-95 cm wingspan. They have an effortless wavering flight as they quarter pastures or similar hunting grounds.
There are a number of subspecies differing in underpart colour. For example"
- T. a. alba of western Europe is almost pure white below
- T.a. guttata of central Europe is orange.
- The Australian, Melanesian and Pacific forms may constitute a separate species, the Eastern Barn Owl, T. (alba) delicatula. All races have grey and ochre upperparts.
Distribution / Range
These are birds of open country such as farmland, preferentially hunting along the edges of woods. They are fairly sedentary and nocturnal or crepuscular (primarily active during the twilight)..
Barn Owls occur worldwide, on every continent except Antarctica.
Breeding
Nestlings are covered in off-white down all over, but already have the typical barn-owl face.
The Barn Owl builds a nest of sorts, but unlike in typical owls it is just a scrape in any unsorted debris as has assembled in a hollow with narrow entrance.
Typical nest sites include tree stumps and cliff crevices, but these owls will readily nest in attics, vacant and ruined buildings, and even wells, chimneys, hunting blinds and similar locations.
The usual clutch consists of roughly half a dozen eggs, but may be as small as 2; very large clutches of more than a dozen eggs might be of 2-3 females.
 |
|
Diet / Feeding
Barn Owls feed on voles, frogs and insects, but are economically valuable birds as they also prey on animal pests like rats, shrews, moles and mice.
Other than human persecution, they have few predators, although large owls such as the Eurasian Eagle Owl and the Great Horned Owl will kill smaller species if the opportunity arises. Farmers often encourage Barn Owl habitations for rodent control by providing nest sites such as a wooden nest box or a large drum installed sideways in a barn. An adult Barn Owl will eat approximately 3 mice per day. A pair raising 3-5 owlets will consume many more rodents.
Vocalization
Barn Owls have a notable shreee scream, ear-shattering at closerange. They also hiss like steam kettles. When captured or cornered, they throw themselves on their backs and flail with sharp-taloned feet, an effective defence. Contrary to popular belief, they do not make the call "tu-whit to-whoo".
- Genus: Tyto
- Genus: Phodilus
- Fossil genera:
- Necrobyas (Late Eocene/Early Oligocene - Early Miocene of France)
- Prosybris (Borgloon Early Oligocene of Hoogbutsel, Belgium? - Early Miocene of France)
- Nocturnavis
- Palaeobyas
- Palaeotyto
- Selenornis
The presumed "Easter Island Barn-owl", based on subfossil bones found on Rapa Nui, has turned out to be some procellarid (Steadman, 2006).
Copyright: Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia.org
Related Web Resources: The Arsenal - Info & Webcam ... Barn Owl (Noah's Ark - Info) ... Barn Owl (Photo & Distribution in Suriname) ... Ghostly Barn Owls (An owl who does not hoot) ... Barn Owl (Drawing & Info - Birds of Britain) ... Common Barn Owl (Desert USA - Info) ... Barn Owl Recovery Program
Photo, Video and/or Article contributions are welcome! Please click here for info
The Avianweb strives to maintain accurate and up-to-date information; however, mistakes do happen. If you would like to correct or update any of the information, please send us an e-mail. THANK YOU!
