Uncovering Hooters: Barn Owls Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fitting - they often roost in barns

More than any other owl, barn owls favor moles, voles, mice, rats, lemmings, shrews, gophers, tenrecs, bandicoots... local cuisine can vary considerably, but they gobble up anything that fills the rodent niche where they are. Squirrels and chipmunks tend to be safe because they go to bed early - something to keep in mind if there are any squirrels reading this.

Larger rabbits or smaller insects are possible in times when better fare is scarce. This makes barn owls naturally attracted to us, since we also attract lots of tiny, nibbly, pestilential foragers.

The deliberate use, or invitation, of barn owls to control vermin has gone on since the 17th century. Many kinds of agricultural buildings installed small windows near their apexes to allow barn owls to enter and take their fill of small mice. Pictured is one of these old owl holes. Owl holes are rarely used nowadays, and the U.K.-based Barn Owl Trust encourages owners of agricultural buildings to install nestboxes to replace them.

Answer: They will nest virtually anywhere

Owls aren't known as picky nesters, but barn owls essentially have no preferences at all. The birds may nest in unfurnished tree cavities, mine shafts, empty silos, chimneys, steeples, other animals' burrows, electrical boxes, underpasses, dovecotes, drive-in movie screens, uncovered roofs, and clawed-out cavities in cliff faces.

In some cases, this willingness to nest anywhere can backfire. One report tells of a pair nesting on a tin roof, the eggs rolling around endlessly, since ma and pa owl didn't bother with decoration. When the eggs were inspected, the reflected sun had cooked them. Apparently, in captivity, barn owls are also famous for not treating their man-made enclosures with the lavatorial delicateness of those uppity Strigidae.

On the other hand, human settlement does provide them a bevy of nesting places. Since modern granaries generally no longer leave a window open for the owls, the U.K.-based Barn Owl Trust recommends that such buildings erect nestboxes for these birds. I think this is something we should encourage, but a lack of nesting sites is certainly the least of these owls' worries.

Answer: False

Actually the barn owl is a weak owl for its size. While great horned owls have strength that rivals bald eagles, barn owls live life like a heat-seeking claw machine. They can grab dextrously... but with barely enough force to keep a stuffed animal or a field mouse in its clutches. Their feet are adapted to lock shut while exerting minimal force in order to save their energy. Their goal isn't to pounce and crush, it's to surprise and abduct their prey.

Bigger, generalist owls, like the great horned and the barred owls, have scythe-like, reversible rear talons that can be adapted for scavenging, fighting, or pursuing prey heavier than themselves. Tinier owls, like screech owls, that eat insects, have straighter talons - and so too do barn owls.

Despite the major human-caused causes of barn owl population decline, starvation is the main threat and killer of barn owls. These are slender birds, acrobatic by owl standards, and they keep almost no fat reserves. Life for them is a constant energy struggle - all the more amazing that they've spread to every corner of the globe!

Answer: Yellow

Throughout the U.S. and Canada, there are only a few owls with dark-colored eyes. Barred and barn owls are widely distributed and instantly recognizable, apart from a few local species that resemble the barred owl. With their monkey face and whitish plumage, there's no mistaking a barn owl for anything else on the continent!

It's believed the color of an owl's eyes is a clue to their lifestyle: if they are almost exclusively nocturnal, they'll have dark eyes, and if they spend some time out in the day, they'll have yellow eyes. The great horned owl's eyes can look orange in some lighting, said to indicate their crepuscular activity (that is, at dusk and dawn).

Answer: sound

A barn owl's night vision is good, but they are the best sound-based hunters in the animal kingdom, bar none. The brains of barn owls have three times as many neurons in the areas involved in processing and mapping sounds than do crows (among the smartest birds). Barn owls can tell the type of prey they're pursuing from paw-steps and scratches alone, letting them penetrate matted tussocks and thick snow with exacting claws.

Surprisingly, it seems that owls aren't quiet to hide from prey. Rather, the reason to keep their high-maintenance feathers is so *they* can hear the movements of their prey!

Answer: A woman shrieking

Taken out of context, a barn owl's scream is about the most terrifying noise you can hear in the forest at night. Don't take my word for it, take Lady Macbeth's: "It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman,/Which gives the stern'st good-night." Shakespeare alluded to the association of owls as death omens multiple times, and no doubt the shriek of the barn owl contributes mightily to this superstition. Many people believe that myths about banshees are nothing more than your friendly neighborhood mouser saying hello.

Ironically, the owls known as screech owls have an incredibly mild, pleasant song, often compared to a horse's whinny.

Answer: False

Depending on who you ask, the three recognized species of barn owl together represent the most widely distributed bird of prey in the world. In 2024, following suit revisions by several other groups, the American Ornithological Society split the barn owl into three species: the eastern barn owl of Australasia, the western barn owl of Europe and Africa, and the American barn owl of the Americas.. Fortunately for identification purposes, their ranges don't overlap - though if you want to distinguish between the 35 barn owl subspecies, you're on your own.

As long as you know where in the world you are, you're much more likely to confuse a barn owl for its similar-looking relatives in the genus Tyto, like the Australian masked owl, the eastern grass owl, or the red owl of Madagascar.

Answer: Two to three months - they spend a while as downy "owlets"

Barn owls get it: parenting means partnering, and both mom and dad feed and may incubate the eggs. Courtship begins with the male offering caught mice to his mate (food is always the way to a barn owl's heart). When owlets are hatched, most of the hunting is done by dad, but barn owls survive along a knife-edge, and rodent abundance can vary from day to day. After about two weeks, the owlets can warm themselves, and momma owl joins the hunt too.

Baby barn owls have a voracious appetite, and will call out for food almost nonstop. They eat so much, they will actually reach their heaviest weight at 6 weeks old, bigger than mom and dad! They shed the weight later to improve their flight. After 7-10 weeks, they fledge, and will hang around their nest for several weeks as they get their bearings. (Often, mom has to chase away the youngsters to make them leave the comforts of home... oh, the sorrows of growing up!)

Barn owls are more likely than other owls to nest more than once during the year - again, they'll only bother if food is abundant.

Answer: Rain

The unique feather structure that makes barn owls a vole's worst nightmare comes at the cost of the natural waterproofing other birds enjoy. They still produce the same kinds of water-wicking oils from their preen glands, but their feather structure is what washes them up. The individual vanes coming off the main shaft, the rachis, are covered in tiny strands called barbules. You can see in the featured photo, or may remember from touching a feather, that on most birds, these barbules hook together almost magnetically. But the barbules of owls are loose - good if it's air passing through, bad if it's water.

A rainy day that's good for ducks can severely stress barn owls. Because birds have lightweight bones with large air pockets in them (flying is much easier when you weigh almost nothing), it takes a lot of energy for a bird to keep itself warm. And barn owls generally weigh less than 2 pounds (less than a kg) - even a little moisture can make flying a lot less energy-efficient!

Answer: Rat poison

You are what you eat, so logically, you must be what whatever you eat eats. And if most of what you eat is poisoned rats, then you'll ingest all the poison that your food has ingested. Follow me? A British study of barn owls found that 40% of deceased specimens contained some amount of rat poison - not necessarily the cause of death, but a contributor to poor health. (You should also know that other research has found that rat poisons are an ineffective way of reducing rodents, and it's much more effective to remove whatever's attracting them.)

There are other human impacts on barn owl populations. Their low-to-the-ground, rodent-heavy hunting style makes them particularly susceptible to car crashes. Though they are globally distributed, populations have plummeted in the U.K. and the American Midwest. Their status as "Least Concern" obscures the obstacles these birds face in many areas, and the necessary changes aren't intensive.

But let's end on some good news. Given their famous nesting indifference and their love of free food, barn owls will breed prolifically in captivity. And interest in their protection is growing. The U.S. state of Indiana has installed over 400 nestboxes since 1984. Robert Salter of East Yorkshire, U.K., has installed 350 on his own! Nestboxes are widely available (or you can make your own), and you can even order different sizes to suit your favorite owls.