NL·0770Herbarium of the Nature Library
- Name
- Tyto alba
- Family
- Tytonidae
- Native to
- Europe, Africa, the Middle East and western Asia
- Habitat
- Farmland, Grassland, Savanna
On eBird ↗
Western Barn Owl
Live sightings near you, the range map, bar charts of when it is seen, and Macaulay Library photos and recordings.
Western barn owl
Tyto alba
Also calledNonnetjie-uil (Afrikaans) · Lechuza común (Spanish) · Effraie des clochers (French) · Schleiereule (German)
A ghostly pale owl with a heart-shaped face that can hunt in total darkness by sound alone. It is one of the most studied predators in the world for its hearing.
The western barn owl is a species of barn owl native to Europe, southwestern Asia, and Africa. It was formerly considered a subspecies group together with barn owls native to other parts of the world, but this classification was found to be paraphyletic with respect to some other members of the genus. Wikipedia
What it can do
- iCan locate and catch prey in complete darkness using hearing alone
- iiAsymmetrically placed ears pinpoint sounds in both direction and height
- iiiSoft, fringed feathers make its flight almost silent
- ivFacial disc acts as a dish to focus sound
In the field
Field marks
- aHeart-shaped white facial disc
- bBlack eyes
- cGolden-buff upperparts finely speckled grey
- dWhite to buff underparts
- eLong, feathered legs
- Voice
- A long, rasping, eerie screech; also hisses and snores at the nest.
- Not to be confused with
- Short-eared owl has yellow eyes, streaked plumage and a round face. Eastern and American barn owls (now separate species) are very similar but live in other regions.
- Where to see it
- Farmland and marshes across Europe and Africa; East Anglia (UK), Camargue (France), South African grassland
- When
- Resident
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Life & habits
- Diet
- Small mammals, especially voles, mice and shrews
- Habitat
- Open grassland, farmland and marshes with old buildings or hollow trees
- Size
- 33–39 cm; wingspan 80–95 cm
- Lifespan
- Usually under 4 years in the wild; record over 15 years
It quarters low over fields on silent wings, listening for rustling voles.
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Native range
Europe, Africa, the Middle East and western Asia
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
Woodcuts and engravings matched from the Source Library’s scanned books by name. Plates marked “relative” show a close kin rather than this exact species. Click a plate to read the page it came from, with translation.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Tyto alba in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
Marginalia
In European folklore the screeching barn owl was a bird of ill omen, called 'screech owl' or 'church owl'. Farmers in Israel and Jordan now put up nest boxes for barn owls as joint pest control across borders.
Curiosity
A barn owl pair may eat several thousand rodents in a single year.
Kinship
Photographs: iNaturalist contributors under the licences shown. Records: GBIF.org. Historical plates: Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0; originals public domain). Summary text: Nature Library editors and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Medicinal and edibility notes are historical and educational, not advice. iNaturalist taxon 20445.