Barn Owl

The Barn Owl is a medium sized owl with no ear-tufts and a heart-shaped face. These pale, nearly worldwide birds are closely associated with man through their traditional use of barn lofts and church steeples as nesting sites. The species name "alba" refers to the colour white. Other names for the Barn Owl have included Monkey-faced Owl, Ghost Owl, Church Owl, Death Owl, Hissing Owl, Hobgoblin or Hobby Owl, Golden Owl, Silver Owl, White Owl, Night Owl, Rat Owl, Scritch Owl, Screech Owl, Straw Owl, Barnyard Owl and Delicate Owl. The facial disc is white with a brown edge, and with a brownish wash between the lower edge of the eyes and the base of the whitish-pink bill. Eyes are brownish-black. The crown and upperparts are yellowish-brown to orange-buff, covered partly by a pale ashy-grey veil marked with scattered white spots surrounded by black. The tail is similar, with a few darker bars and with white dots near the tips of the feathers. Underparts are whitish or pure white with a few small, dark drop-shaped spots (often more on females). Legs are feathered white nearly to the base of the mostly bare toes, which are pale greyish-brown and dirty yellowish underneath. Claws are brownish-black. The Barn Owl calls infrequently, the usual call being a drawn-out rasping screech. The courtship call of male at nest is a shrill repetitive twittering. Adults returning to a nest may give a low, frog-like croak. When surprised in its roosting hollow or nest, it makes hissing and rasping noises and snapping sounds that are often called bill snapping, but possibly made by clicking the tongue. Barn Owls specialise in hunting small ground mammals, and the vast majority of their food consists of small rodents. Voles (field mice) are an important food item, as well as pocket gophers, shrews, mice and rats. Barn Owls breed rapidly in response to mouse plagues. Other prey may include baby rabbits, bats, frogs, lizards, birds and insects. Prey are usually located by quartering up and down likely looking land - particularly open grassland. They also use low perches such as fence posts to seek quarry.