ABOUT
Barn Owls
Barn owls, Tyto alba, are medium-sized raptors 13-16 inches tall with a wing span of 39-49 inches (Krings et al, 2017). They weigh 1-1.5 lbs and are pale in color, mostly white, with a mix of tawny coloring on their back and wings. Key features are a heart-shaped face, dark eyes, and long legs (Krings et al, 2017).
Habitat and Behavior
Barn owls are on all continents except Antarctica and on some islands (ABC, 2024; Audubon, 2024.). They are cavity nesters and use hollowed trees or cliff sites. However, their beneficial relationship with humans, specifically farmers, has enabled nesting in barns, steeples, and other buildings. This has offered them a variety of hunting habitats, such as grassland and agriculture fields, vineyards, and rangelands (ABC, 2024). Rangelands include coastal sage scrub and chaparral.
Barn owls are nocturnal, and their prey is as varied as their habitat. They consume small mammals such as rodents, gophers, and rabbits but will also eat birds and reptiles (Cornell Lab, 2024). They ingest their prey whole, including skin, fur, and bones, then cough up pellets with undigestible material (Cornell Lab, 2024). These pellets also become the basis of their nest material (Cornell Lab, 2024).
Barn owls have low-light nocturnal vision and excellent hearing, with unevenly placed ears pinpointing where sound is coming from. This makes them outstanding hunters.
They have a harsh screech-like call, and with air flowing smoothly over their feathers, their flight is silent, earning them the folk name Ghost Owl (ABC, 2024).
Conservation and Ecology
Barn owls play an important role in an ecosystem as they can control a rodent population (SeaWorld, 2024). Barn owls can consume 1,000 rodents in a year; adding to those are rodents consumed by their partner and thriving owlets (Long, 2017). Installing nest boxes supports profitability for agriculture as barn owls can control a rodent population (Motro, 2011). Further support of the positive cost analysis, specifically for a 40-ha vineyard in California, was the difference between the labor costs of trapping and removing the vermin at $8.11 versus $ 0.34 per rodent consumed by the barn owls (Browning et al., 2016).
Barn Owl Range
and
Migration Map
Dark Purple = Common for barn owls to remain for all seasons
Light Purple = Uncommon for barn owls to remain for all seasons
The white area means migration is uncommon except in the purple dashed area, where younger barn owls can move long distances. Some remain all winter near the northern edges of the range, but some (perhaps young birds) move long distances southward in the fall. Most of the barn owl activity recorded in New Jersey occurs in Salem and Cumberland counties, but some are regular October migrants at Cape May, NJ (Audubon, 2024).
Rangemaps adapted from Lives of North American Birds by Kenn Kaufman© 1996, used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company (Audubon, 2024).