Gabrielle Marks | Reviewed: 6/4/2025
Discover answers to the most popular questions about barn owls, including classification, identification, habitat and range, hunting and diet, behavior, and conservation status.
Classification
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Aves
Order: Strigiformes
Family: Tytonidae
Genus: Tyto
Species: Tyto alba
Identification
What Does a Barn Owl Look Like?
The back of the barn owl is a mottled shade of black, brown, tan, and white, while their undersides are tan-white with black spotting. Its facial disk is white and heart-shaped. [See image above]
Why Don’t Owls Have Bright Plumage Like Other Birds?
In nature, an animal’s characteristics, such as color, usually serve a purpose. In the case of the brightly colored bird, which is typically the male of the species, this characteristic helps attract the female bird, thereby contributing to the propagation of the species. The female, in contrast, has muted colors, which allows her to remain inconspicuous when roosting. [1]
Considering that the barn owl hunts in fields, marshes, and along the treeline, it is ideally suited in color to easily glide over its hunting territory without being immediately conspicuous to its prey.
How Big Is a Barn Owl?
The size of the barn owl varies across the 28 subspecies. In general, the species is considered a medium-sized owl, with females being slightly larger than males. On average, the owl measures between 12.6 and 15.7 inches and weighs 1 to 1.3 pounds. [2][3]
Habitat and Range
Where Do Barn Owls Live?
Barn owls prefer to nest in areas with wide, open spaces, such as fields or marshes, which provide ample food sources. They will make a home of nearly any suitable hollow cavity, such as in trees, cliffs, and caves, but will also nest in little-traveled man-made structures, such as barns, haystacks, and even nest boxes. The availability of these habitats is crucial for their survival and reproduction.[4]
Are Barn Owls Only Found in the United States?
Except for Antarctica, barn owls can be found across the globe. Their presence in diverse habitats is a testament to their adaptability and resilience. They are, in fact, the most geographically widespread of all owl species. [5]
Hunting and Diet
What Do Barn Owls Eat?
Like all owls, barn owls are birds of prey, making a meal of what is available to them in the ecosystem. They feed primarily on small mammals that are active at night, such as mice, voles, lemmings, and other rodents. Studies have demonstrated that the barn owl prefers voles, specifically when they are available. They will also feed on other birds, amphibians, reptiles, and large insects when necessary. [6]
Interestingly, barn owls will only feed on live prey.
Owls do not digest food in the same manner that we do. They swallow their food whole, and the parts that they cannot digest, such as bones, teeth, and fur, are compacted into pellets and coughed up.
Will a Barn Owl Eat a Cat?
As carnivores, a barn owl will prey on any animal that it can subdue. It tends to choose its prey based on its weight, hunting smaller vermin rather than large ones. In an Ohio study of the common barn owl’s food habits and preferred prey, the meadow vole was the favored prey, with an average weight of 2.1 ounces. The owls tended to avoid the larger voles that average 7-17 ounces. [7]
Following this logic, a kitten could be in danger of becoming prey. At an average of three-and-a-half ounces, a newborn kitten could certainly fall prey to a barn owl. [8]
A full-grown cat is actually more of a threat TO a barn owl. At an average of 8-10 pounds, the average domestic cat far outweighs the average-sized one-pound barn owl. [9] In fact, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources lists cats as a threat to the barn owl, along with other predators such as raccoons and great-horned owls. [10]
How Do Barn Owls Catch Their Prey?
The barn owl utilizes its low-light vision to hunt, but its hearing is the primary sense it relies on for hunting. Its facial disk funnels sound into its ears located asymmetrically on either side of the head, allowing the owl to find its prey before it even sees it. This unique hunting technique, combined with its silent flight, makes the barn owl a highly efficient predator.
Like all owl species, barn owls fly silently due to the structure of the thickly coated downy wings that have soft, serrated edges with flexible fringe on the trailing edge, which work to reduce turbulence.
Barn owls are such good hunters they have been introduced to some oceanic islands to control the rodent population. [11]
Do Barn Owls Have Predators?
Baby owls, or owlets, may fall prey to raccoons, snakes, and short-tailed weasels.
Adult barn owls do not have many predators. Though relatively small, these birds extend their wings and hiss at anything perceived as a predator, scaring off many. The great horned owl will sometimes prey on the barn owl, and the smaller barn owls of Western Europe are sometimes preyed upon by other birds of prey, such as eagles, buzzards, falcons, and other owls. [12]
Behavior
Are Barn Owls Nocturnal?
Generally speaking, barn owls are considered to be nocturnal, but that doesn’t mean that you will never see them at other times of the day. They are frequently seen hunting at dawn or dusk, which also makes them crepuscular. You may even see a barn owl during the day if its prey is scarce and it has not sufficiently stockpiled during the evening. [13]
Do Barn Owls Migrate?
Barn owls are not migratory birds, though young owls may fly over a thousand miles to find a suitable habitat after becoming independent of their parents. Once they have arrived, they usually remain there for the rest of their lives.
The fact that the barn owl does not generally migrate is unfortunate when it has chosen a location that is seasonally suitable at the time, only to experience a harsh winter. These birds are not suited for extreme winter conditions. They have a high metabolic rate compared to body size, meaning they require more food. They are also not well-insulated, meaning greater body heat loss. Therefore, a harsh winter can result in a high mortality rate. [14]
Conservation Status
Are Barn Owls Endangered?
As of December 2013, barn owls in the United States are currently not protected by the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). The US Fish and Wildlife Service regulates the ESA with cooperation from the National Marine Fisheries Service. [15]
Though the barn owl has not been added to the federal list, several states have added it to their list of species deemed to be endangered for a particular geographical location. In the case of the barn owl, seven Midwestern states have listed the barn owl on their endangered species list, and nine others have listed it as a species of concern. [16]
(Current owls on the ESA endangered species list include the Anjouan scops owl, Morden’s owlet, giant scops owl, Madagascar red owl, Mexican spotted owl, northern spotted owl, and the Seychelles scops owl)
References
- [1] Heinsohn, R; Scientific American -“Why Are Male Birds More Colorful Than Female Birds?”
- [2][4][14] Marti, C. 1992. Barn Owl. Pp. 1-15 in A Poole, P Stettenheim, F Gill, eds. The Birds of North America, Vol. 1. Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington DC: The American Ornithologists’ Union
- [3][15] US Fish and Wildlife Service – “Listing a Species as Threatened or Endangered.”
- [5][11][12] University of Michigan Museum of Zoology – “Tyto alba.”
- [6][7] Colvin, B; Ohio Journal of Science. Food Habits and Prey Specificity of the Common Barn Owl in Ohio. 1986; Volume 86, Issue 3
- [8] ASCPA – “Newborn Kitten Care.”
- [9] VCA Animal Hospital – “Weight Reduction in Cats.”
- [10] Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources – “Species at Risk: Barn Owl.”
- [13] Barn Owl Conservation Network – “Are Barn Owls Nocturnal?”
- [16] Florida State University Cooperative Extension Service – “Barn Owl: Tyto Alba.”
- National Audubon Society – “Audubon’s WatchList 2007 in taxonomic order by geographic region.”
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