Meet the Animals
Barn owl
Where & when to see them
- Barn owls can be seen all year round throughout most of the UK, except some parts of the Scottish highlands and Ireland.
- Look for barn owls hunting at dusk on farmland or road side verges, or even flying into old barns and out buildings.
More about this species
- Barn Owl Trust
- Hawk and Owl Trust
- Raptor Foundation
- ARKive
- BTO: barn owl monitoring programme
- The Lost Gardens of Heligan: nest box cams
A challenge has been issued! Can our camera crew film a barn owl at Pensthorpe, we certainly hope so.
Missed something? Keep up to date with the barn owl here.
Species information
Once seen the barn owl will never be forgotten. Its heart-shaped face and ghostly white underside are instantly recognisable as it glides silently at dusk beside a road, over farmland or across open countryside. An expert hunter, it quarters a field using super sensitive hearing to pinpoint unsuspecting voles and mice to eat.
If you haven't seen a barn owl you may well have heard one. Also known as the screech owl, it emits a scary and spine-chilling scream most often in the dead of night!
Its name might suggest it favours barns and out-buildings but it's equally at home making a nest in tree holes.
Barn owls swallow their food whole and then regurgitate what they cannot digest in a pellet. If you find pellets there might well be a nest site nearby.
How to help
If you have a suitable site put up a barn owl nest box. The Barn Owl Trust website has info on how to do it. There's more advice for a barn owl nest box from the BTO.
Join your local RSPB group to find out more about the barn owl. You can also help the BTO record bird distribution throughout the UK with BirdTrack.
Latest Updates
The enhanced version of the site requires the Flash 8 plugin (or higher) to be installed and JavaScript to be enabled on your browser. To find out how to install a Flash plugin, go to the WebWise Flash install guide.
From 2008
We all remember what Hannibal got up to at the Lost Gardens of Heligan. Here's a quick piece about the time Mrs Hannibal layed those eggs.
Key links
-
Pensthorpe Nature Reserve & Gardens
Host of Springwatch 2009. -
Your barn owl pictures
Slideshow of your amazing barn owl pictures in the Springwatch Flickr group.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~07~RS~){kind=small}