Barn Owl
Order: Strigiformes
Family: Tytonidae
Genus: Tyto
Species: alba
**Barn Owl Audio Coming Soon**
Description
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Length: 16"
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Wing span: 42"
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Weight: 1.0lb (460grams)
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Mostly white underside with black spots and a pale orange-brown backside with white spots
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White heart shaped face
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Big black eyes
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Sexes are silimar in plumage, but females are larger, darker and more spotted.
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Juveniles resemble adult
Factoids:
- The female Barn Owl tends to be more spotted on the breast than the male. These spots may act as a stimulus to the male, indicating the quality of the female. If a female's spots were experimentally removed, her mate fed their nestlings at a lower rate than if the spots were left alone
- Up to 46 different races of the Barn Owl have been described worldwide. The North American form is the largest, weighing more than twice as much as the smallest race from the Galapagos Islands
- The Barn Owl has excellent low-light vision, and can easily find prey at night by sight. But its ability to locate prey by sound alone is the best of any animal that has ever been tested
- The Barn Owl is one of the most widely distributed birds in the world, found on all continents except Antarcticai
All photographs and audio clips are ©Jamie Mullin 2007
Sources: Cornell Lab of Ornithology & The Sibley Guide to Birds.
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