Barn Owl

Barn Owl

(Tytoalba)

Photographed at Desert Museum, Tucson, AZ        Apr 2010

The Barn Owl is one of the most widely distributed birds in the world, found on all continents except Antarctica, and on many oceanic islands as well. It has been introduced by people to some of the few places it did not already occur, namely Hawaii, the Seychelles Islands, and Lord Howe Island.

The Barn Owl is one of the few bird species with the female more colourful than the male. The female has a more reddish chest that is heavily spotted. The spots may signal to a potential mate the quality of the female. Heavily spotted females get fewer parasitic flies and may be more resistant to parasites and diseases.

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. It can catch mice in complete darkness in the lab, or hidden by vegetation or snow out in the real world.

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