by Donna Hill B.Sc. B.Ed. 1997

The Barn Owl, or Monkey-faced Owl, has been designated as a threatened species by the BC Ministry of Environment. Owls in Southwestern BC are at the northern tip of their range, doing best in warmish, relatively stable climates. Their range includes most of the USA south of 45 degrees North Latitude and Mexico.

B.C. scientists estimate that about 1000 owls live mostly in old barns in rural areas of the Greater Vancouver area and Fraser Valley. This is the only place in Canada where it survives. It does not migrate.

There are several reasons why the Barn Owl is considered a threatened species. The largest effect is because of habitat loss. Much farmland has and is being developed into housing and shopping areas for humans. This reduces the amount of hunting areas for the owls and the amount of food available. As well, many wooden barns which are falling down because of age are being replaced by steel barns. These steel barns are more extreme in temperature year round and many young barn owls die. Wooden owl boxes are helping the owls to raise their young in more comfortable ranges of temperature. Lastly, Barn Owls hunt close to the ground and in their search for food, pass over roads which carry cars. One study estimates that about 10 percent of all Barn Owls are killed by vehicles each year in the Lower Mainland.

Like all vertebrates in B.C., owls are a protected species and a permit is required to collect or possess any part of a barn owl, living or dead. This same law does not allow sale of a barn owl (dead or alive) or owl pellets in B.C. An additional permit is also required because of its protected status.

As in all predators, an owls eyes are located at the front of its head. And like all owls, the Barn Owl's eyes are fixed in their sockets and cannot turn. This means that in order to see what is beside them, they must move their head. An owl cannot rotate its head completely around. In fact, it can move its head just slightly more than a human can, to about 270 degrees of a circle. What is actually happening is that owls like to sit with their head turned looking over their back to watch for predators. When they hear something that could be a predator, they quickly turn their head around to the other side to hear where exactly the sound is coming from, often turning it in one direction almost back to the starting point. This makes it appear as if they can turn their all the way head around.

This buffy-colored owl measures about 45 cm (18 inches) from tip of beak to tip of tail. Its undersides are white with a few small black dots. Males tend to have more white than females who sit on the nest. In flight, it appears to be a white ghostly figure with huge head and wings that flies low over fields. It has long legs to help it catch voles (who look like large-eared short-tailed mice) in the fields, farmlands and marsh areas where it prefers to hunt. It is a nocturnal or active at night. In the winter and in the daytime, it roosts in conifer trees such as Red Cedars and in barns.

Under the roosts, you will find greyish oblong pellets of fur about 2.5 to 4 cm long (1-1.5 inches). These pellets are the remains of a meal and usually contain one or more complete skeltons of a small rodent, shrew, bird, bat or mole that they eat. Each animal is swallowed whole and any undigestible matter such as fur, feathers or bones are regurgitated about 12 hours later, like a cat coughs up a furball. Scientists collect and take apart these pellets to determine what owls eat. In B.C., 80 percent of a Barn Owl's diet is the Townsend's Vole. Fresh pellets have a shiney slimey coating on them.

A Barn Owl's call does not sound like a typical owl call. It hisses, cackles, screams and clicks its beak, all erie sounds heard on a dark night.

Barn Owls may have several clutches of 4 to 7 white eggs each year. During warm spells, even in the middle of winter, they may build a loose nest of straw ( or not at all) inside a barn or old woodpecker hole and lay eggs. If the warm spell is followed by a cold snap, often the eggs cool and any hatched owlets die. Any that do survive to adulthood during the winter is often because caring humans who call authorized authorities such as licenced Wildlife Rehabilitators to remove the young and raise them for later release.

Barn Owls are monogamous, which means they have one mate for life. If a mate should die, they will not find a new one until much time has passed. During courtship, males present the females with gifts of food such as voles. He also feeds her while she incubates the eggs. Her more brownish coloring may allow her better camouflage when sitting on the eggs.

Eggs hatch in order of being laid, usually about one or two days apart so that the oldest may be two weeks older than its youngest sibling. The louder a chick can beg for food, the more likely it is to be fed by the parents. Larger chicks can beg louder. This can be a benefit during years where little food is available as the older ones will receive the largest portion of food and have a better chance of suriving than if the food is given to all the chicks.

Owlets are dependent upon their parents for food and protection until they are fledged and experienced hunters. This is called altracial. Young owls will fluff their feathers and hiss to appear large and scarey when threatened.

Barn Owls can use only their sense of hearing to find a catch a vole in a completely darkened barn. Their ears, located in the same place as a human's, have one that is slightly higher than the other. This allows the owl to triangulate (like playing a video game where you must align vertical and horizontal cross hairs to shoot your opponent), or locate its prey by bobbing its head, using the loudness of the sound in each ear to determine the exact location of prey. Soundless flight also helps them to glide up on prey.

Their feathers must be kept in excellent shape to keep them warm and for flight so they use built-in combs on the middle talon of each foot. One side of the talon is roughened so it can be used to comb through feathers to zip them up, remove dust, mites etc.

If you want to learn more about owls and or perhaps take a 3 day tour, click here.

Here are three books about owls that will be available at your local library:

Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat, fiction
A Place for Owls True Animal Stories by Katherine McKeever, non-fiction, explains her experiences with rehabilitating owls in her home
An Owl in the House A Naturalist's Diary by Bernd Heinrich, non-fiction