The Barn Owl

Driving back through the park in the late evening, the car headlights often catch the pale heart shaped face of a barn owl perched on a particular fence post. Barn owls are masters of nocturnal hunting, perfectly evolved for silent flight and possessing outstanding night vision. They are well adapted to live alongside humans using spaces in barns or churches as they do not build their own nests. They are invaluable to farmers, eating over 1,000 rodents yearly. They swallow their prey whole and regurgitate the fur and bones as pellets.

Like many other animal populations, barn owls are vulnerable. In this country, they are protected but currently are not on the endangered list, but it is worth noting that between 1970 and 2020 global wildlife populations declined by 73%. Around Highclere, there are many buildings with nooks and crannies which make appropriate nesting sites, but we have also installed boxes for them, so they have options. Sealed houses are neither healthy for us nor for them. (The painting is by Sarah Elder  - renowned  wildlife artist)

Walking out with the dogs in the half-light of the early evening, I often hear them screech and catch a glimpse as they circle over the grassy fields studded with trees looking for voles, mice, shrews and rats. With their wide wings barn owls can glide slowly whilst their fringed, soft, velvet-like feathers both dampen sound whilst their serrated leading edges break up air turbulence. The fringed trailing edges also reduce stall speed. Conversely these feathers are not highly waterproof, which limits their hunting ability in heavy rain. 

Their eyes are very large for their size offering low light vision and they can turn their head through three quarters of a circle. Their exceptional directional hearing means that they can pick up the slightest noise. This is because their ears are placed asymmetrically, one higher than the other, which means that every sound is heard separately and differently which helps the owl’s brain work out the exact position of the sound source.

When it dives down to pounce, the force is approximately 15 times its own body weight which is far higher than many other birds. One analogy is that it is the equivalent to an 80 kg human being hit by the entire weight of a 12-tonne truck. Its strong legs are great for plucking prey from the undergrowth whilst powerful talons mean that prey rarely escapes. 

Barns owls are a mosaic of brown tinted feathers, the same sort of colour as the rough fields over which they fly. Viewed from below they have distinct white faces, and their bellies are pale coloured as well. This may well reduce the aspect of being a dark ghostly spectre – it is an ante-silhouette strategy.

Throughout history and across many cultures, owls have been regarded with both fascination and awe. However, we also have different and contradictory beliefs about these unique birds.  Owls have been both feared and admired: most cultures consider them wise, but they are also associated with witchcraft and medicine and in England - of course – they are associated with the weather. 

The Little Owl (Athene noctua) is Athena's sacred companion, representing wisdom, strategy, and scholarship, leading to the phrase "wise as an owl” and we all believed that a magical "inner light" gave Owls their night vision.

Folklore surrounding the Barn Owl is better recorded than for most other Owls. It was often considered a harbinger of change, both good and ill. Their eerie calls in the night led to their association with ghosts and spirits. However, they were also seen as symbols of protection, believed to keep evil spirits away from farms and villages.

 There was an Owl liv’d in an oak
 The more he heard, the less he spoke
 The less he spoke, the more he heard
 O, if men were all like that wise bird.