Interactions
PREDITORS:
Some predators of the Barn Owl include large American Opossums,
the Common Raccoon, and also hawks, eagles, and even other owls. Some
of the specific owls that are predators of the Barn Owl are the
Great Horned Owl and the Eurasian Eagle Owl. However,
Some of the biggest threats to Barn Owls are humans and their
pet cats (Johnson, 2012).
PREY:
The Barn Owl is a nocturnal bird who hunts for it's prey during the night time hours. The Barn Owl hunts small ground mammals, such as mice and rabbits. Surprisingly a young Barn Owl can eat more than 100 rodents a year. The Barn Owl uses low branches or fence posts to seek out their next meal (www.owlpages.com).
The diet of a Barn Owl is mainly made up of mammals, no matter where the owl lives. However, in a study taking place in Buenos Aires, they found that birds and amphibians were quite abundant in the diets of the Barn Owl, making up 79.1 and 50% of their diet (Teta, 2012).
There has been evidence that Barn Owls also can eat Banded Geckos. The remains of Barn Owls in a cave on Toga Island (remote island of northern Vanuatu) were found and showed experts what these Barn Owls on this island ate, and that food was primarily these geckos. They uncovered this find by examining bones of a Barn Owl in a cave on Toga Island. The remains were analyzed and it was found that 47% of the bone of the Barn Owls were made up of Banded Geckos. This data concluded that nocturnal birds of prey, like the Barn Owl on this island, are an important predator of the large geckos found on this island. However, the question still remains why geckos are the most frequent choice of food on some islands, like Toga Island, but not on others (Ineich, 2012).
Barn Owls are also known for hunting other smaller birds and fish that are swimming near the surface of the water. Barn Owls do not chew their prey, because they swallow it whole. After they swallow they regurgitate some parts of the animal they ate, like bones, that comes out as a little pellet (www.a-z-animals.com).
In this video, you can see how the Barn Owl catches it's prey, a fish, out of a pond.
Left photo by
Mike Atkinson
Right photo by
Joachim S. Müller
Licensed under
CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0
Life History/Reproduction <--> Spooky Story