Barn owl

“ It is unnatural history to assert, as Mr. Gray does, that the barn-owls ever mope or mourn or are melancholy. Neither are they grave monks nor anchorites nor pillared saints. A boding bird or a dolorous! Nonsense, they are none of these. They issue forth as very devils, and like another spirit of the night, sail about seeking whom they may devour. The barn-owl is the "screech" owl of bird literature; the brown owl the true hooting owl. This species is found in heavily-timbered districts, and it particularly loves the dark and sombre gloom of resinous pine woods. ”

“ The Barn Owl sees in a greater degree of darkness than the others; and, on the contrary, the Horned Owl is enabled to pursue his prey by day, though with difficulty. Owls are sometimes tamed by persons in the country, who carefully rear them in a domestic state, from their propensity to chase and devour mice and other vermin, of which they clear the houses with as much address as cats. The Owl is a solitary bird, and is said to retire into holes in towers and old walls in the winter, and pass that season in sleep. ”

“ Happily for the barn owl, he does not often come out. He loves quiet more than anything. He seeks a hidden, safe place, not only for a nest, but to spend his days in. He is almost the only bird who may be said to live in a home. ”

“ The strange, melancholy expression of the bird’s face, its peculiarly awkward, long legs, and its odd habit of bowing, hissing, and swaying back and forth, all make it an object of great curiosity.
The Barn Owl can see perfectly by day, though it is chiefly nocturnal. It preys upon rats, mice, and shrews principally, and is almost altogether beneficial in its food-habits. All Owls have the habit of throwing up wads of indigestible matter, such as the bones and fur of the mice they have eaten. ”

“ I am amply repaid for the pains I have taken to protect and encourage the barn owl; it pays me a hundred-fold by the enormous quantity of mice which it destroys throughout the year. The servants now no longer wish to persecute it. Often, on a fine summer's evening, with delight I see the villagers loitering under the sycamore trees longer than they would otherwise do, to have a peep at the barn owl, as it leaves the ivy-mantled tower: fortunate for it, if, in lieu of exposing itself to danger, by mixing with the world at large, it only knew the advantage of passing its nights at home ”

“ He is like a cat, not only in his face and in his taste for mice, but in his quiet ways. His broad wings are fringed with the softest down, so that they move with as little sound as a feather fan. The owl is a large bird, but his wings never make the sharp whirr of a pigeon's flight.
The barn owl builds his nest not far from the farmyard. He catches the mice arid rats in the barn and feeds on many harmful beetles and moths. The number of mice he catches for his little ones in a single night is sometimes very large. He is said to bring to his nest four or five of his hapless victims every hour. ”

“ One day, as I watched a crowd of crows yelling themselves hoarse over an owl, an idea fell upon me with the freshness, the delight of inspiration. In the barn was a dilapidated stuffed owl, once known in the house as Bunsby, which had been gathering dust for many seasons. Somehow, for some occult reason, people never throw a stuffed bird on the rubbish heap, where it belongs; when they can stand its ugliness no longer, they store it away in barn or attic till they can give it as a precious thing to some beaming naturalist. ”

“ The barn-owl likes to live in inhabited regions. The roofs of churches, summits of steeples, high towers—these are its favorite haunts. All day it remains crouching in some dark hole, from which it does not come out until after sunset. ”

“ The night-roving bird that inhabits the country village and its immediate neighbourhood is, in most cases, the white or barn owl, the owl that prefers a loft in a barn or a church tower for home and breeding-place to the hollow, ivied tree. The loft is dry and roomy, the best shelter from the storm and the tempest, although not always from the tempest of man's insensate animosity. The larger wood owl is supposed to have a different disposition, to be a dweller in deep woods, in love with "seclusion, gloom, and retirement,"—a thorough hermit. ”

“ In reality, the barn-owl lives on rats and mice, which it catches in barns and churches; on field-mice, meadow-mice, and dormice, which it hunts in gardens and fields. Here, beyond a doubt, we have a service rendered that ought to make people forget its false reputation, make them like and protect it as it deserves. Will the bird that gives us very real help and is guiltless of a single offense ever be declared innocent? I very much doubt it. Superstition is so deep-rooted that there will never be lacking a One-eyed John to nail a live owl to his door. ”

“ The barn-owl, being so widely distributed, and in many countries the most common species, and being, furthermore, the only member of its order that attaches itself by preference to human habitations, and is a dweller in towns as well as in rural districts, is probably the chief inspirer and object of the innumerable ancient owl superstitions which still flourish in all countries among the ignorant. ”

“ The owl’s habitual cry in the silence of the night is a mournful, heavy breathing not unlike the snoring of a man sleeping with his mouth open. To these cries add the darkness of the night, the near neighborhood of churches and cemeteries, and you will understand how the innocent barn-owl has managed to frighten children, women, and even men ”

“ These are swallowed entire, after being merely crushed into a mass by the efforts of the bill; the bones, skins, feathers, or hair, rolled into a ball, are afterwards ejected from the stomach.
In our American forests, we have an owl very similar to the one I have described, both in looks, size, and habits. These large owls seldom approach the abodes of men; but the little barn owl is more familiar. He often takes up his residence in a barn, and, hiding in some nook by day, sallies forth at night, making prey of such little animals as he can find. He is very useful in destroying rats and mice. ”

“ This is a small family of which we have but one member in America, the American Barn Owl. He is found all over the country, as far north as southern New England, but he is one of the shyest of birds. He comes out only at night, and hides so well in the day that he is not often seen, even where he is common. ”

“ And to detect a perched Owl is not at all an easy matter, as the bird has a way of selecting some spot where the colours of its plumage harmonize so well with the surrounding objects that the large eyes are often the first indication of its presence. Many a time I have gone to search after Owls, and only been made aware of them by the sharp angry snap that they make when startled.
The common and well-known Barn Owl, also inhabits Palestine. Like the Little Owl, it affects the neighbourhood of man, though it may be found in ruins and similar localities. ”

“ I have also a Long-eared Owl, but never knew him to wash, although he sits outside in rain and wind both night and day, and seldom seeks shelter or even a dark corner; it is quite the contrary with the Barn Owl, as he does not seem to like the light, and seeks the cellar in the day-time. ”

“ The barn-owl takes up his abode by preference in a building of some kind—an old ruin, a loft in a barn or an outhouse; but above most sites he prefers an ivyclad church-tower, on which account he has been called the church-owl. He also inhabits caves and holes in cliffs, and hollow trees in woods. He spends the daylight hours, standing upright and motionless, dozing on his perch; and, where he is persecuted, he does not stir abroad until dark. ”

“ The Barn Owl has practically a world-wide range, being found not only in Europe but Africa, Asia, Australia, and America, and though examples from certain localities do show some variation in plumage, it is still always unmistakably the Barn Owl. ”

“ It not only breeds in holes of trees, but in old crows’-nests, and will often, when its eggs are taken, lay again within a week. The barn owl, strange to say, is not much more abundant than the long-eared (Strix otus) , which breeds in the old holly-bushes, generally taking some magpie’s nest, where it lays three eggs. Rarer still is the short-eared (Strix brachyotus) , which visits the Forest in November, staying through the winter, and in the day-time rising out of the dry heath and withered fern. ”

“ However, neither with the barn owl nor with man has the species-maker had his own way. Ornithologists recognise but one barn owl. This bird, which is frequently called the screech owl, is delightfully easy to describe. Everybody knows an owl when he sees one ”

“ When it has the good luck to catch one it plucks it very clean before eating it, instead of following the gluttonous example of the horned owls and the howlet, which swallow such prey whole and throw the feathers up later. Its hunting expeditions are much more fruitful when directed against field-mice and common mice, which it dismembers before eating. Other owls make but one mouthful of their prey; the sparrow-owl tears to pieces the animal it has caught, perhaps so that it may enjoy the flavor more. To express astonishment, surprise, fear, the barn-owl waddles in a most ridiculous manner ”

“ Let me therefore say it is easy enough for the average man to recognise an owl, but it is quite another matter when it comes to “spotting” the species to which an individual happens to belong. As a rule the family likeness is so strong as to overshadow specific differences. The barn owl, however, differs from all others in that it has a long, thin face. Take any common or garden owl, and you will observe that it has a round, plum-pudding-like head. ”

“ Warmer days came, and livelier times were stirring among the tenants of the barn. Far up on her own beam Mrs. Barn Owl tended and fed two young downy owlets faithfully. Of course the owl mother knew the beam to be quite a safe spot for baby owls, but somehow she distrusted the skulking old ferret, whom she occasionally caught sight of; besides, rats sometimes climb beams, and once, before the owl eggs had hatched, something had stolen one egg ”

“ Sometimes, at midday, when the weather is gloomy, you may see an owl upon it, apparently enjoying the refreshing diurnal breeze. This year (1831) a pair of barn owls hatched their young, on the 7th of September, in a sycamore tree near the old ruined gateway.
If this useful bird caught its food by day, instead of hunting for it by night, mankind would have ocular demonstration of its utility in thinning the country of mice, and it would be protected and encouraged every where. ”

“ Food consists primarily of insects (often grasshoppers) , small mammals, and an occasional bird (Bent 1938) .
19 Barn owl
Tyto alba
L 14′′ W 44′′
Habitat: The barn owl inhabits most of the forest types in the United States except the higher elevation types in the Rocky Mountains. They are usually considered uncommon residents because their silent nocturnal habits render them undetectable by most casual observers. Barn owls are also birds of the open country, and adapt readily to areas occupied by man (Marti 1974) . ”

“ Although good specific differences are found to exist, it is very nearly allied to the Barn Owl (Strix flammea) of our own island, and, as might be naturally expected, the habits, actions and general economy of the two species are as similar as is their outward appearance: mice and other small mammals, which are very numerous, are preyed upon as its natural food. To attempt a description of its noiseless flight, its mode of capturing its prey, or of its general habits, would be merely to repeat what has been so often and so ably written relative to the Barn Owl of Europe. ”

“ Wood says the European barn-owl lives in trees and crevices of old buildings, laying its white, rough-surfaced eggs upon a soft layer of its own castings. So intensely pungent is the odor of the nest that it is with difficulty the hand can be washed free of it after meddling with the eggs. The young are described as curious little puffs of white down. The European species is often found feeding a brood of young, while it is hatching another set of eggs. The bird is often tamed, and sometimes makes a really intelligent pet. The American species is not common in the Middle States. ”

“ All day the barn owl stays at home. But in the evening he comes out for his dinner, and then there is havoc among the small animals. Rats, ground squirrels, mice, bats, small snakes, grasshoppers, and almost anything else that is eatable are welcome to him. He should be protected because he is so useful. ”

“ But the barn-owl’s universality cannot be accounted for in the same way, since he is, in most countries, a stay-at-home bird, and spends his whole life, from year’s end to year’s end, in the same spot. ”

“ The barn owl lays its eggs in the places which it inhabits. There is usually a thick bed of pellets on the floor, and it considers no other nest needful. The eggs are said to be laid in pairs. There may be two, four, or six, of different eggs, in the nest, and perhaps a young one, or two, at the same time. Eggs are found from April, or even March, till June or July, and there is, sometimes at any rate, a second brood as late as November or December. This owl does not hoot, but screeches. ”

“ Three other species of owls nest in this district: the barn owl, the tawny owl and the long-eared owl.
The latter generally selects some old crow or magpie’s nest; and lays from four to six eggs, not so round as those of the short-eared species.
Tramping over the moors for a mile or so, a bird rises from the hillside before us and dashes away at a great rate. Marking down the spot, we find a stone surrounded by bird’s feathers and insects’ wings, and pick up a titlark which is still warm. This is the shambles of a merlin hawk who was just going to dine off the titlark when we disturbed him. ”