Fun Facts About American Barn Owls

• Ghostly pale and normally strictly nocturnal, American Barn Owls are silent predators of the night world.
• You can find them by listening for their eerie, raspy calls, quite unlike the hoots of other owls.
• In 2024, ornithologists split the widespread Barn Owl, found on every continent except Antarctica, into three species: American Barn Owl,Eastern Barn Owl, and Western Barn Owl. American Barn Owl is restricted to the Americas, Eastern Barn Owl occurs from South Asia to Australia, and Western Barn Owl is found in Europe, Africa, and western Asia
• American Barn Owls swallow their prey whole—skin, bones, and all. About twice a day, they cough up pellets instead of passing all that material through their digestive tracts. The pellets make a great record of what the owls have eaten, and scientists study them to learn more about the owls and the ecosystems they live in.
• Barn owls have excellent low-light vision, and can easily find prey at night by sight. But their ability to locate prey by sound alone is the best of any animal that has ever been tested. They can catch mice in complete darkness in the lab, or hidden by vegetation or snow out in the real world.
• The oldest known American Barn Owl lived in Ohio and was at least 15 years, 5 months old when it died.
• Owls' feathers are especially soft and muffle wind noise. Many owls also have special comb-like fringes on the leading edge of their wings to help channel air, thereby reducing noise. These adaptations allow owls to make a soundless approach towards their prey.
• Many owls can turn their head around over 270º, allowing them to look almost directly behind themselves. This adaptation compensates for the fact that their eyes are fixed into a boney socket in the skull and are virtually unable to move.
• Owls' eyes are unique among birds as they are located on the front of the head, instead of on the side. This not only gives them a very human appearance but also enables them to match our level of depth perception that is created by the overlapping vision from each eye.
• Owls can fly and hunt during the daytime as well as at night. However most of them are best adapted for nocturnal hunting.
• Owls' ears are located asymmetrically on their head, with the right ear being higher than the left ear. Each ear hears the same sound with a slight difference, creating a form of audible “depth perception” which can be used to track the location and movements of their prey.