Barn Owl Tyto alba 

Suffolk Priority Species

The Barn Owl, Tyto alba, is one of Britain’s most beloved and instantly recognisable birds of prey, belonging to the family Tytonidae and found across much of the world. Adults are unmistakable – pale and ghostly in flight, with golden-buff and grey upperparts, strikingly white underparts, and the characteristic heart-shaped facial disc that channels sound to the ears with remarkable precision, enabling hunting in near-total darkness. A specialist predator of small mammals, particularly field voles, it hunts by quartering low over rough grassland on buoyant, silent wingbeats, a behaviour made possible by the uniquely soft, comb-like structure of its flight feathers. Barn Owls nest in cavities in old farm buildings, church towers, and hollow trees, and are strongly dependent on the availability of rough, tussocky grassland for foraging. The species declined sharply through the latter twentieth century due to the loss of such habitat, changes in farming practice, rodenticide poisoning, and road casualties, though targeted conservation efforts – including the erection of nest boxes – have supported a partial recovery in many areas. Suffolk has a reasonable population, and the species is a characteristic sight across the county’s more traditionally managed farmland, river valleys, and fen margins, particularly at dusk. Image: © Neil Rolph, Flickr.

Find out more: RSPB, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, iNaturalist