Photo by Sharif Uddin / Macauley Libray
The Barn Owl is a pale owl with dark eyes in a heart-shaped face.
It is rusty-brown above and its underparts vary from white to cinnamon.
The darkest birds are always females and the palest birds are males .
They roost and nest in dark spots in cities and farm buildings, plus cliffs and trees. They fly with shallow, slow wingbeats, often with legs dangling down.
They are found coast to coast in the U.S. and Mexico, but are declining in the East, especially in the upper midwest.
I have never seen one where I live in southern Ontario, north of Toronto. My National Geographic Field Guide says the Barn Owl "...is now extirpated as a breeder from the northern tier of states and southern Ontario.
Conservation-wise, Barn Owls are listed as threatened in some U.S. states, and the eastern population is listed as endangered in Canada.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder
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