Tyto alba
A ghostly, heart-faced hunter that flies in near-total silence.
Size: 33-39 cm | Habitat: Farmland & Countryside Birds | Season: All year
With a heart-shaped white facial disc, dark eyes, and golden-buff, mottled upperparts, the barn owl is one of Britain's most beloved birds of the night. Specially fringed wing feathers let it fly in complete silence, hunting voles by sound alone over rough grassland and field margins at dusk.
Heart-shaped white facial disc · pure white underparts · golden-buff and grey mottled back · silent, buoyant, low flight
Barn owls hunt mainly at dawn and dusk (and by day in hard winters), quartering low over rough grassland listening for the rustle of voles. They nest in tree hollows, old barns, and purpose-built boxes, often returning to the same site year after year.
A barn owl's hearing is so precise it can catch a vole in total darkness using sound alone, picking out a rustle from over 75 metres away.
The Barn Owl (Tyto alba) is one of Britain's most instantly recognisable owls, with a pale, heart-shaped facial disc, dark eyes, and golden-buff, delicately mottled upperparts, silhouetted pale and ghostly against the evening sky.
Uniquely fringed flight feathers let it hunt in near-total silence, relying on hearing so acute it can locate a vole moving under thick grass in complete darkness. The species declined sharply through the mid-20th century, hit hard by organochlorine pesticides such as DDT in the 1950s and 60s and by the loss of rough, unmanaged grassland where voles thrive.
Numbers have since recovered to Green status, helped considerably by widespread nest box schemes and farmland conservation advice that encourages rough field margins — a good example of how targeted, practical habitat measures can turn a declining species around.
🟢 Conservation status: Green (UK Birds of Conservation Concern 5)
Green-listed. Barn owl numbers recovered after the ban on organochlorine pesticides, aided by widespread nest box schemes and farmland advice encouraging rough grass margins where voles thrive.