Barn Owl Profile
If you’re one of the minority of reasonable and mentally healthy individuals who don’t understand early starts and find the quiet solitude of the later hours far more conducive to productivity, you might be been nicknamed after one of these birds.
The oldest of its family, and the last in its genus, the night owl, Tyto alba, perhaps better known as the Barn owl.
Barn Owl Facts Overview
| Habitat: | Open country |
| Location: | Worldwide |
| Lifespan: | Only around 4 years |
| Size: | 55 cm (21.7 in) wingspan |
| Weight: | Up to 60g (1.3lb) |
| Colour: | White, brown, tawny |
| Diet: | Rodents, birds, insects |
| Predators: | Raccoons, opossums, eagles, hawks, other owls |
| Top Speed: | Around 30km/h (19mph) |
| No. of Species: | 1 |
| Conservation Status: | Least Concern |
Barn owls are profoundly widespread and are the most distinctive owls to look at. These factors have cemented for them a permanent position in the history of human culture.
Known by a multitude of names, this is a precision hunter of the night, whose body is flawlessly evolved to work as a tool of death for nocturnal mammals like mice and rats.
This is a silent killer, and while they may have the IQ of a pencil eraser, they’re so well made that it doesn’t matter.
Interesting Barn Owl Facts
1. This is a well-known animal
The barn owl is known to societies all over the world, and from its ghostly appearance, freakishly upsetting call and the act that it kills things in the night, it’s gathered a fantastic collection of nicknames.
Known as the demon owl, ghost owl, hobgoblin owl; dobby, golden, monkey-faced and screech owl, among many more, this is an infamous bird.
This is also an old owl, considered to be the longest-lasting of its family. Fossils go back over 20 million years, and while there were once others in the genus – giants from Cuba and Italy – it remains as the single species in its genus.
This creepy bird pops up in folklore all over the place, even in the works of Shakespeare, who referred to it as the “night owl”.
In England, they were killed and hung up on the farmhouse door to keep livestock safe. It probably didn’t work.
In Greece, its eggs were eaten under a waning moon to treat epilepsy. That probably didn’t work, either. Michelangelo carved such a detailed sculpture of one that he certainly kept one around for reference.
And their widespread familiarity is hardly surprising, given the owl’s range. 1
2. They have one of the widest distributions of any landbird
This owl exists everywhere outside of Antarctica. This is a remarkable distribution for a single species and is only matched by birds like the osprey and peregrine falcon.
The barn owl likely has a wider range than even these species, having now been recorded breeding in New Zealand, and despite this, is a very sedentary animal, choosing to stay put rather than migrate, even when there are better foraging grounds nearby.
Barn owls also don’t survive well into adulthood. Parenting skills leave a lot to be desired, and around 70% of their kids won’t make it.
This is a good sign that it isn’t a clever bird, and like all owls, its braincase is reduced to make space for its ridiculously long eyeballs.
3. Its face is a satellite disc
The main way that such a cognitively challenged animal can be so successful is to become really, really, really, ridiculously specialised at something.
In this owl’s case, it’s hunting.
The face of this owl, the concave mask that gives it such a bizarre charm and ghostly presence, is a tool for functioning in the night.
This owl can hunt in total darkness, using only its ears for guidance; the sound of its prey is concentrated in the parabola of its face, and scattered into directional information that enters the bird’s exceptional ears, placed asymmetrically on its head for even more direction-control.
Hunting either from high perches or from a hovering position over the dense undergrowth, this owl arrives at its victim’s back without ever being seen.
On a stationary target, this bird has a 90% catch rate. Very importantly, however, when a target moves sideways, the rate drops down to 0%. For an animal so good at hunting, then, it needs to be quiet. 2
4. They’re quiet
The sense of hearing in barn owls gives them a margin of error of only 1° on both vertical and horizontal axes. Once they’ve acquired a target, they descend rapidly and silently to make their kill.
The barn owl’s feathers are unlike that of most other birds, as they are specially adapted for smoothly cutting through the air, redirecting it inwards and smoothing out its flow across the wing.
This all works to reduce turbulence, and therefore sound, in flight, and combined with keen hearing, eliminates the need for both vision and a difficult chase. 3
5. They’re great pest control
This level of specialisation makes them incredible hunters, and their choice of food has made them excellent additions to crop farms.
These owls have a high metabolic rate, and so need to eat a lot, and they have been preferentially chosen by some farmers over other forms of rodent control such as traps or poison. For such a common bird, pest control on a farm can be as simple as providing nest boxes to encourage them to spend their time nearby.
A pair of barn owls might remove up wot 1800 rats in a year. 4
6. They have frightening defence postures
If these nesting sites are disturbed, the owl makes good use of its creepy face and supplements that with some unsettling dance moves.
An open-winged posture sends a strong “come at me, bro” message, and a lowered head and loud hissing fill in any gaps for those not getting the hint.
This has led to yet another nickname for the bird: the hissing owl.
7. The Sibling Negotiation Hypothesis
While the adults do appear to be a bit dim, there’s evidence that their young still have their wits about them.
Traditional wisdom states that nestlings beg to signal their hunger levels and to compete for attention with their siblings. Instead, barn owl babies might have a more complex strategy to their begging.
The “sibling negotiation hypothesis” suggests that when parents are absent, nestlings vocally interact to determine the order in which prey items will be delivered by the parent.
A study tested this hypothesis experimentally and found that nestlings remain silent when a sibling is hungrier, indicating an understanding of relative hunger levels.
They also noted that nestlings increase their vocalization after their rival has been fed by a parent, signalling their willingness to contest for the next prey item.
Their findings indicate that young barn owls strategically use their vocalizations to organize resource allocation among themselves before their parents get back. 5
8. They’re OK for now
These strategies seem to be doing well for the species, as they’re still of no concern to conservationists at the global level. In some locations, habitat loss is becoming a problem, but the adaptability of the species to nesting wherever they can is one of the things that makes them so good at what they do.
Loss of foraging sites is a looming threat, as farming becomes more intensive and industrialised, but as long as there are barns, at least for now, there will be barn owls.
Barn Owl Fact-File Summary
Scientific Classification
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Strigiformes |
| Family: | Tytonidae |
| Genus: | Tyto |
| Species: | Alba |
Fact Sources & References
- “BARN OWL”, Owl Research Institute.
- Eran Shifferman (2004), “Movement and Direction of Movement of a Simulated Prey Affect the Success Rate in Barn Owl Tyto alba Attack”, JSTOR.
- Roger S. Payne (1971), “Acoustic Location of Prey by Barn Owls”, Journal of Experimental Biology.
- Devane Sharma (2023), “Natural Pest Control: Barn Owls To Combat Rats In Plantations”, Musim Mas.
- Alexandren Roulin (2000), “Barn owl (Tyto alba) siblings vocally negotiate resources”, The Royal Society.