144 



Order STRIGIFORMES 

 Family TYTONIDAE : Barn Owls ; Lechuzas de los Campanarios 



The typical barn owl, Tyto alba, is almost worldwide in distribution 

 in temperate and tropical lands, even to widely separated islands. It 

 is curious that it is not resident in New Zealand, as it is present in 

 Australia. Throughout its vast range it varies in size and in depth of 

 color, so that numerous geographic races have been described. In 

 outward appearance barn owls differ from the typical owls in the 

 form of the facial disk, which is elongated and heart-shaped, instead 

 of rounded. Another peculiarity is the serrated, comblike projection 

 on the inner side of the claw of the middle anterior toe, a structure 

 that is known at random elsewhere in birds, for example in herons, 

 goatsuckers, pelicans, and cormorants. It is supposed to be used in 

 dressing the feathers. Eggs of the typical barn owls, Tyto alba, are 

 white, and as incubation proceeds, become discolored in varying 

 amount. They are laid on any natural accumulation of trash in the 

 shelter that houses them. 



Living barn owls are of moderate size, but in Pleistocene time in 

 the West Indies there were species as large as the largest of living 

 typical owls. 



TYTO ALBA GUATEMALAE (Ridgway) : Barn Owl; Lechuza 



Figure 20 



Strix flammea var. Guatemalae Ridgway, Bull. Essex Inst., vol. 5, December 

 1873, p. 200. (Chinandega, Departamento Chinandega, Nicaragua.) 



An owl with elongated, heart-shaped facial ruff ; relatively few 

 markings on the under surface. 



Description. — Length 350-380 mm. Two color phases, one light, 

 white underneath, paler above ; the other tawny, distinctly buff on the 

 lower surface, darker above. Adults (sexes alike), light phase, facial 

 disk white, except for a cinnamon to chocolate colored spot in front 

 of the eye, with a narrow line of feathers around the lower half that 

 are white basally, cinnamon-buff distally, tipped narrowly with fus- 

 cous to dull black; above light cinnamon-buff on head and neck, 

 dotted lightly with a mixed pattern of dull black, light gray, and white ; 

 back, rump, and wing coverts with a marbled pattern of dull black, 

 gray and white, with the concealed bases of the feathers light cinna- 

 mon-buff ; wings and tail light cinnamon-buff, with broken bands of 

 dull grayish brown, tipped with white ; outer pair of tail feathers 



