Barn Owl is well known to residents of Western European countries, however, little is known about it in Russia. This is the oldest branch of the owl order. Its Latin name sounds like Tyto alba, and its English name is Barn owl. The people called her the night owl, a ghostly and screeching owl. Its distinctive features are a peculiar voice and head shape. Who is the barn owl, and what is its way of life? Let's talk in more detail in this article about one of the most common owls in the world.
Barn Owl: Description
The name of this bird of prey, apparently, came from the peculiarities of its voice, resembling a kind of snoring or vulture. It differs from other representatives of owls in the form of a facial disc in the form of a heart, and it seems that she is wearing a white mask. Small in size, the bird has a light color and a peculiar face. Its size is about the same as an eared owl or jackdaw. Its length reaches 33-39 cm, its body weight is 300-355 g, and its wingspan is about 90 cm. By the way, its weight can vary within wide limits and depends on a particular individual. It can be a mass of both 180 g and 700 g.
In the upper part, its color acquired a sand (red) color with white and dark specks. The barn owl is white in the lower part (less often yellow), in addition, there are dark spots in the plumage. The front disc is light and has a flattened appearance, he also received a buffy border, under the eyes there is a small area of red feathers. The wings are pale white with a golden streaky pattern. The iris is dark brown or black. Her eyes are expressive and large. It has a slender physique, and it also has long legs, which have a thick and fluffy plumage to the toes. She has a short tail. Bill is yellowish white. By the way, the color of the lower part depends on the territory of the barn owl. For example, in North Africa, Western and Southern Europe, in the Middle East it is white, but in the rest of Europe it is yellow-orange.
Externally, they practically do not differ from each other by sex. Females are slightly darker, but not particularly noticeable. Young chicks also do not differ from adults, sometimes they are more colorful.
As we noticed, such a bird as a barn owl has a very memorable appearance, the photo clearly shows us this.
Habitat
Barn Owl is 35 subspecies that are distributed across all continents, excluding only Antarctica, they are also found on the islands. Previously, it could be found in the Baltic states and other CIS countries: now it lives in small numbers there. On the territory of Russia it is found only in the Kaliningrad region. In the European part, it is absent in the northern regions and mountain systems.
On the one hand, ordinary barn owl is adapted to various geographical conditions, since it is widespread almost everywhere, and on the other hand, it does not have the ability to accumulate fat reserves in itself, therefore it does not tolerate a harsh climate. In the northern regions of the United States and in most of Canada, in Northern Europe and practically throughout Russia, it is not. The bird cannot live also in the African and Asian deserts.
There were cases when the barn owl was artificially settled by a person in those areas where it never existed. Thus she appeared in the Seychelles and Hawaiian Islands, in New Zealand. After the barn owl was settled in the Seychelles, a decrease in the population of the kestrel, which she fed, began.
Favorite places to stay
Barn Owl almost always settles near human dwellings. Nests both in large cities and in rural areas. Likes to be settled in attics, in hollows and niches of walls. Prefers roofs of houses and abandoned buildings. Most often, barn Owl is found on open plains, where a small number of trees are present. These can be places such as woodlands, swamps, dense meadows, and birds also live along vacant lots, ponds, ravines, and highways.
It can often be found where agricultural farms and human housing are located. A barn owl tries to avoid dense forests and highlands. For this bird, the following conditions for distribution are necessary: the availability of food, the absence of cold winters and weak competition with other predators. Basically, they do not change their habitat, exceptions are situations when the food supply in their habitat is depleted.
What does it eat?
Her favorite food is mouse-like rodents, and she can also cope with pasyuk (a large gray rat). She can catch up to 15 mice per night. Less commonly eat small birds, in particular, sparrows, as well as large and amphibian insects. Rats, field voles, hamsters, shrews, possums can be used as food. They can also catch bats, frogs, reptiles and invertebrates. The owl grabs the sacrifice right on the fly, clamps it with its tenacious claws and carries it to a place where it can calmly feast on it.
The peculiarities of the location of the hearing aid allow the bird to catch all the sounds that the victim makes, which helps her a lot when hunting. Her ears have an asymmetrical arrangement: one of them is at the level of the nostrils, and the other is in the forehead.
Barn Owl Characteristic Voice
She utters a hoarse whispering rattle. Barn owls flapping their wings and flipping their beaks. By the way, this feature of them may inevitably terrify people who decided to relax in the forest silence and met with her. Many sounds made by this owl have been noted, but the dominant of them is the hoarse shrill trill, which can be heard during its flight. The barn of a barn owl is lower in tone.
By the way, the bird got its Russian name for its low, rattling, hoarse scream that sounds like “heee”. They publish it more often than ordinary owl hoot. Her peculiar hoarse voice resembles a hoarse cough.
Nightlife
She flies out to hunt in the late twilight and leads a strictly nocturnal lifestyle. As a rule, they live alone, but can be found in small groups in places of accumulation of game. Since barn owls lead an active lifestyle at night, during the day they sleep. For a dream they choose some niche, natural or artificial - it can be a hole in the ground or an unused attic.
During the hunt, they change their altitude - they either rise up, or then go down again, flying around their possessions. They can also expect a victim, hiding in ambush. Their wings are arranged in such a way that their flight turns out to be as quiet and soft as possible, and besides, they have excellent vision and hearing. By the way, in some regions barn owls also hunt during the day, for example, in Britain, but at this time of day there is a danger for them in the form of birds of prey, such as, for example, gulls.
The barn owl kills its victim with its claws, then steps on it with a long leg and tears it apart with its beak. It has a very mobile neck, due to which it can eat prey, almost without bending. During the meal, the feathers of the facial disc move, and it seems that owls make faces.
Breeding
Barn Owl is usually monogamous, but cases of polygamy are not excluded. In a year, one, less often two masonry occurs. The start of the breeding season depends, as a rule, on the climatic conditions of the habitats and the amount of food. In warmer regions and where there is a lot of food, they can breed at any time of the year. For example, in the temperate zone of Europe or North America, this begins in March-June. If re-laying takes place, then the removal of the chicks will occur in the period March-May and June-August.
The male himself chooses the place where the nest will be, and then begins to call the female. As such, the nest is not built; for this, a closed and dark place is chosen. It can be a groove in an old stump, a hollow of a tree and other niches. The female is engaged in incubating eggs, and at this time the male brings her food. The conditional nest is located at a height of 2-20 meters above the ground, the size of the masonry is usually 4-7 eggs, but can be from 2 to 14. They are larger, as a rule, in periods characterized by an abundance of feed. The size of eggs that are white or cream in color is on average 30-35 mm.
During the breeding season, birds make various sounds. They shrill and hoarse scream, grin and sniffle, making a characteristic “heee” sound. The rest of the time, as a rule, owls are silent. For about a month, the female incubates eggs. Juveniles fly out of the nest on the 50-55th day of life.
By the way, a couple of owls stay together until the death of one of the partners. Female and male live nearby each other, but one by one.
Behavior during danger
In a calm state, a seated barn owl keeps its body straight, and if the bird is worried, it takes a threatening pose - spreads its legs, spreads its wings in a horizontal plane and clings to the ground. When she meets the violator of her territorial possessions, she actively flaps her wings, stepping closer and closer to the enemy. Hisses loudly and clicks its beak. If this does not help, then it attacks the enemy, falling on his back and striking with clawed legs.
Barn Owl Chicks
Hatched chicks are completely dependent on their parents, who feed them one at a time. At birth, they are covered with thick white fluff. In the event that it is very cold, the barn owl does not leave the nest at all and warms the chicks, which become completely independent after three months. The grown chicks fly away to new places and find another territory for living and reproduction. A barn owl may appear at a time even 10 chicks, if the conditions allow, but in a hungry year, as a rule, no more than 4 eggs are expected.
It is noted that the behavior of their chicks is not typical for birds: they show altruism, refusing to eat in favor of those who are more hungry than they are. Compared with most other birds, in which the cubs literally tear each other's food out to eat themselves, this fact causes great interest in such a bird as barn owl. A photo of her chicks shows how they look when they are born.
Parents take care even after their chicks fly out of the nest: they continue to care for them and feed them until they become completely independent, that is, they reach the age of three months.
People attitude
Barn owl in humans has always been a symbol of wisdom, but at the same time they treated this bird with superstitious fear. Superstition is now a thing of the past, and people are increasingly showing genuine interest in it. Barn owls inspired fear over people because of some of their characteristics: a white face resembling a mask, frightening sounds, and also because of the habit of this bird to fly silently and sharply present itself in front of a person, for which people called it a ghostly owl.
Barn Owl mainly feeds on rodents, thereby benefiting humans. People have long appreciated the help of these owls in the destruction of pests. So, in the 17th century, this practice was widespread, when special windows were made in houses, barns, mills and other buildings through which barn owls could penetrate inside and destroy rodents. In this way, the birds remained full, and human benefits were brought.
If they notice people nearby, they begin to behave very interestingly: they rise high, swing on their legs in different directions and at the same time depict various grimaces. If you come very close to her, then, as a rule, she flies away.
How many barn Owls live?
In vivo, barn owls can live up to 18 years, but this is the maximum rate. In fact, it turns out that they live mostly very little - their average life expectancy is about 2 years. There were recorded cases when the barn owl was able to live in natural conditions until the age of 17, in North America, the bird in captivity died at the age of 11.5 years, but in England a record was broken - the bird lived in captivity for 22 years.
We talked about such an interesting bird as a barn owl, about its habits and how it is useful for humans. Unfortunately, due to changes in the environment and the use of pesticides in various parts of Europe, the number of barn Owl is declining. Cases of bird death from collisions with cars on highways are also not uncommon. Currently, barn Owl is a bird, which is listed in the Red Books of a number of countries in Eastern Europe, where for unknown reasons, in recent decades there has been a rapid decrease in its number.