Common Barn-Owl

Tyto alba Scopoli

 

 

 

Field Guide IDs:
NG-248; G-176; Pl 174; PW-120; AE pl 291; AW-pl 302; AM(II)-156


Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs &
Mating System
Dev. &
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
..
Foraging
Strategy
F
I:30-34 DAYS
SEMIALTRICIAL 2
BUILDING
CAVE

5-7
(3-11)
MONOG
F: 52-56 DAYS
MF
BIRDS
SWOOPS

BREEDING:

Open and partly open habitats, esp grassland, farmland, often in or near towns. 1, occ 2 broods.

DISPLAYS:

Male claps wings together in courtship flight; ritually presents food to female.

NEST:

Also in cliff crevice, occ excavate burrow in arroyo wall. Usu unlined, occ lined with wood chips, sticks, etc.

EGGS:

White, often nest-stained. More elliptical than eggs of other owls. 1.7" (43 mm).

DIET:

Mostly rodents (esp voles), rarely amphibians, reptiles, insects. Elects pellets.

CONSERVATION:

Winters within U.S. Blue List 1972-81, Special Concern 1982-86; widely declining largely due to habitat loss as grassland and farmland reduced by suburbanization. Readily use nest boxes.

NOTES:

Clutch size reflects prey availability and severity of preceding winter; fledging success also low following severe winter. Male feeds female throughout incubation. Young hatch asynchronously, spanning up to 14 days. Male and female brood. Sway lowered head from side-to-side when confronted. Roosts diurnally, occ communally, leaving roost singly before sunset and circling upon departure.

STANFORD NOTES:

Several pairs are resident on campus. Nests on artificial ledges and cavities on several buildings, and (probably) natural tree cavities and within the dense crowns of palms. Often seen day-roosting in palms near the mausoleum or seen (and heard) flying over the main campus at night.

ESSAYS:

How Owls Hunt in the Dark; Pellets; Blue List; Brood Reduction; Variation in Clutch Sizes.

REFERENCES:

Bunn et al., 1982; Colvin, 1985; Cramp, 1985; Earhart and Johnson, 1970; Marti and Wagner, 1985.

Except for Stanford Notes, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).