Prey
tions of animals and insects available. Barn Owls will often prey on their staple food source, the vole, which typically represents about 80% or more of their diet. The remainder of the Barn Owl’s diet during this season will include insects such as grasshoppers, beetles and moths and, sometimes, other birds, including small-billed black birds and cliffswallows. In drier climates, the Barn Owl has even been known to consume snakes and scorpions! Voles remain the most common food as the season changes to summer. As the nests of migrating birds (such as cliff-swallows in the Western United States) become vacated, the owl turns its attention to prey found in fields. This includes small rodents, gophers, rats and a variety of insects. It is always fascinating to find exoskeletons in owl pellets that reveal a wide variety of insects, most commonly grasshoppers, beetles and even spiders. It’s been observed by Marc Trueb, an avid Barn Owl pellet collector from Oregon, that moles surrounding and in a nest are often times not consumed as we previously thought. We’ve noticed this same behavior in spite of experts citing moles as a food item for Barn Owls. Our team has concluded that the rodent, while it can be consumed, is placed in the nest to either deter predators or be used as further insulation of the nest, since smell is apparently not a homemaking priority!
What Animal Preys on Barn Owls? Predators of the Barn Owl include opossums, raccoons and similar carnivorous mammals, as well as eagles, larger hawks and other owls. The Great Horned Owl in the Americas and the Eurasian
30
© 2021 Owl Brand Supply Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction permission for education purposes only and not for resale or commercial use without specific permission.
