Barn Owl Species Action Plan

Legal Protection

The barn owl is protected under Schedule 1 and Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.  It is therefore an offence to injure, kill or capture the bird, to disturb nesting birds, to take eggs, and to release captive owls into the wild without a licence.

Ecology and Management

Scottish barn owls live almost entirely within grasslands and forests.  Their diet consists almost wholly of small mammals associated with these habitats, such as mice, shrews and voles, with 90% of prey taken within a 1km radius of the nest site.  Areas of moist, moderately long grassland are especially important for foraging, as is the provision of woodland belts for shelter and hunting perches.

Their feathers are specially structured for silent flight, and by using their extremely sensitive hearing, barn owls can pick out and swoop noiselessly on prey.  Although they can see perfectly well in daylight, they tend to hunt at night.

Suitable roosting and nesting sites can be holes in trees and rock faces, dense tree canopies, and derelict buildings such as farm buildings, church towers and old chimneys.  Nest sites must be dry and warm to prevent the fatal chilling of owlets in wet weather.  Competitors for nest sites are jackdaws, kestrels and tawny owls.  A major factor influencing barn owl population levels is the number of voles in any particular year, as vole population levels are cyclical.

Barn owls usually produce between 4-7 eggs, laid at an interval of 2-3 days.  This gives a staggered hatch, with the first hatchling being as much as a week older than the last. In poor prey years, the youngest chicks are unlikely to fledge.

Biodiversity Context

The UK action plan has not included objectives for barn owls:

2. Current factors causing loss or decline

Habitat loss, due to agricultural change and urbanisation, has had the most significant impact on barn owl numbers.

• Drainage of damp grasslands
• Increase in cereal cropping and autumn sowing, and decline in haymaking
• Loss of wild grassland habitat due to tree planting schemes on marginal land
• Loss of edge habitats such as hedgerows
• Vermin proof grain storage has lessened the availability of prey around farmyards
• Land take for new roads, factories and housing schemes has reduced and fragmented suitable grassland habitats around urban areas.

There have been significant losses of traditional nest sites.

• Building improvements due to hygiene regulations, and modernisation of farm buildings
• Forestry activity, and dutch elm disease have reduced the number of suitable nest sites in tree hollows

Accidental mortality can be significant

• The wrong choice of rodenticide, or inappropriate usage of the chemical, can cause accidental poisoning of barn owls
• Barn owls hunting along road verges and railway lines can be killed.  Their swooping, gliding flight makes them easily hit by vehicles and trains.

Pest control firms are currently advised to take into account the risk to fauna when carrying out their work.Increasingly rodenticides less toxic to birds are used, and dead rodents are quickly removed.

4. Action plan long term aims

• To arrest, and then reverse the barn owl population decline in North Lanarkshire and surrounding districts.
• To restore, and then manage, suitable habitats to ensure the long-term success of the barn owl in North Lanarkshire and surrounding districts.

5. Proposals for action

• To maximise the potential for barn owls to breed in identified "core areas" by creation and restoration of high quality nesting and feeding habitat.
• To identify adjacent suitable land, which given appropriate habitat enhancement, would allow for the emigration of surplus owls.
• To produce management proposals for these identified core, and future emigration areas.
• To encourage landowners to undertake appropriate habitat enhancement works, and to erect artificial nest boxes.
• To encourage the construction of artificial barn owl nest boxes in proposed barn, steading and other appropriate agricultural or rural building developments or conversions.
• To reduce the threat of accidental poisoning of owls by increasing the awareness of pest control firms and landowners
• To raise awareness of barn owl conservation issues through general liaison with landowners and inclusion of articles in relevant local newspapers and newsletters

(Partners taking forward these actions: Scottish Coal, N Lanarkshire Council, Scottish Ornithologists Club, RSPB, FWAG, SWT, West of Scotland Water, East of Scotland Water, British Waterways, Kelvin Valley Countryside Project, Forestry Commission, Central Scotland Countryside Trust).

Plan written by Rosemary Booth, Scottish Coal. Janurary 2002.