1. Barn Owls

2. This is a Barn Owl. You can tell this is a Barn Owl by
its heart-shaped face.

3. Barn owls live in open countryside that contains a
good mixture of rough grasslands, marsh land,
young trees, edge of woodland, old barns, tree
hollows and nest boxes.

4. Barn Owls are nocturnal, meaning they hunt at night.
They are carnivores, meaning they eat meat.

5. Barn Owls mainly hunt by sound rather than by
sight. With its acute hearing the Barn Owl can detect
the slightest movement & sound of its prey.

6. The ears are set with one higher than the other under
the feathering of the inside edge of the facial disc,
located next to the eyes.

7. The facial disc acts as
an amazing sound
funnel, collecting and
filtering sound.
This allows the owl to
detect movement of its
prey with complete
accuracy.

8. Short-Tailed Vole
Shrew
Wood Mouse
Young Rat
The main diet for the Barn Owl is the short-tailed vole;
other rodents include shrews, wood mice & young
rats. They swallow their pray whole digesting what
they are able from their meal.

9. Barn Owl Eating Prey
[VIDEO]

10. An owl can’t digest everything it consumes from it’s meal.
The material it can’t digest becomes a small, oval-shaped
pellet that contains the bone, fur and feathers from the
animals it has eaten. The owl coughs it up and spits it out,
much like a cat and a fur ball.

11. An Owl Pellet Emerges!
[VIDEO]

12. You can see the skull of one of the animals this owl
ate. Owls will often eat many animals before they
dispose of the indigestible material.