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Barn Owl

"Orchid"

Is a real diva. She's beautiful and she knows it! She is 9 years old and is an amazing owl to watch circling, silently over your head during our flying displays.   

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BARN OWL FACTS

Tyto alba

  

TERRITORY/LOCATION

The barn owl is found almost everywhere in the world except polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himalayas, most of Indonesia, and some Pacific islands. Barn owls are not particularly territorial but have a home range inside which they forage.

HABITAT

Barn Owls require large areas of open land over which to hunt. This can either be marsh, grasslands, or mixed agricultural fields.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Least Concern

DIET

Barn owls specialise in hunting along the edges of woods or in rough grass strips adjoining pasture, it also hunts by day animals on the ground and nearly all of their food consists of small mammals which they locate by sound, their hearing being very acute.

SIZE/WEIGHT

Females being 33 and 39 cm long, 80 to 95 cm  wingspan.

Weighs 224 to 710 g

NESTING

They mate for life unless one of the pair gets killed, when a new pair bond may be formed. Breeding takes place at varying times of year according to locality, with a clutch, averaging about 4 eggs, being laid in a nest in a hollow tree, old building or fissure in a cliff.

  

LIFE EXPECTANCY

4  years old average age,

15 years oldest recorded in the wild , can live up to 20 years old in captivity however, most Barn Owls die young. Of those that fledge, approximately 70% die in their first year. 

SCIENTIFIC

CLASSIFICATION

KINGDOM

Animalia

PHYLUM

Chordata

CLASS

Aves

ORDER

Strigiformes

FAMILY

Tytonidae

GENUS

Tyto

SPECIES

T. alba

DID YOU KNOW?

Although the barn owl, is not considered to be a threatened species of animal, the barn owl population numbers have severely decreased over the years due to pollution and habitat loss as the barn owls are finding it harder and harder in some areas to find food. Despite this being true, the barn owl population in the UK is thought to be increasing again.

Birds of Prey