Order STRIGIFORMES: Owls 

 Family TYTONIDAE: Barn Owls 



TYTO ALBA PRATINCOLA (Bonaparte) 



american barn owl 

 Plates 26-30 



HABITS 



The North American form of this world-wide species is widely dis- 

 tributed throughout the warmer portions of the United States; it is 

 rare in the northern tier of States, north of latitude 41°, but it increases 

 in abundance southward and is especially abundant in southern Cali- 

 fornia. It is widely known locally as the "monkey-faced owl" and 

 has also been called "white owl", "stone owl", and "golden owl", the 

 last a pretty and appropriate name. 



Owls have always been victims of ignorance and superstition, 

 believed to be birds of ill omen and harbingers of misfortune and 

 death ; and the barn owl, in particular, has been responsible for many 

 reports of haunted houses. But, in spite of its sinister appearance 

 and its ghostlike habits, this curious owl is one of our best feathered 

 friends, most worthy of encouragement and protection, as a most 

 efficient living mousetrap. 



Nesting. — As I have had very little experience with the barn owl, 

 I quote the following comprehensive statement by Bendire (1892): 



Their nesting sites are quite variable and include all sorts of places, such as 

 natural hollows in trees, holes and cavities in clay banks or cliffs, burrows under 

 ground enlarged to suit their needs, in the sides of old wells, abandoned mining 

 shafts, dovecots, barns, church steeples, etc., and sometimes, though rarely, in 

 perfectly exposed and unprotected situations, such as the fiat roof of an occupied 

 dwelling-house in the midst of a village. 



Mr. W. O. Emerson, of Haywards, California, writes me: "A pair of Barn 

 Owls nested the past season (1889) on the bare tin roof running around a cupola 

 of a neighbor's house, which was surrounded by a low railing. Not less than 

 twenty-four eggs were laid and none of them were taken away at any time. There 

 was no nesting material on which the eggs were placed, not even a single twig, 

 and they naturally rolled around on the roof, as it was impossible for the bird 

 to cover them all. When taken down finally and examined, it was found they 

 were all rotten, caused, no doubt, by the intense heat from the sun's reflection 

 on the tin roof." 



Writing of his experience with the barn owl in Arizona, Major 

 Bendire (1892) says: "In this vicinity I believe they nest mostly in 

 deserted burrows of badgers, at any rate more than once I saw them 

 sitting in the mouth of such burrows." 



The only nest of a barn owl that I have ever examined was shown 

 to me by E. Lowell Sumner, Jr., near Claremont, Calif., on February 

 28, 1929 (pi. 26). It was in a large, horizontal, natural cavity, about 

 140 



