A Barn Owl Year

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Calendar – Spring

March – April

The barn owl begins courtship in March or April and the long nesting period usually extends from May to September. Following mild winters nesting may begin earlier.

Established pairs will renew their bond by preening each other and by screeching and chasing around their territory. Young owls will be seeking mates; if their territory has become isolated without any corridors to lead them to other owls then they will be forced to remain solitary beacuse Barn owls tend to remain within their familiar territory. This isolation has been shown to be a serious threat to the maintenance of the barn owl population. Courtship continues when the female starts calling to her mate with snoring sounds, like an owlet begging for food. The male responds by bringing prey and mating follows.

The barn owl doesn’t make a nest as such, the place where the eggs will be laid is usually chosen from a roosting site which could be a ledge, tree hole,a beam in a building or some similar darkened location, the floor of which will be covered in pellets. Loss of nesting sites is a major problem although nest boxes can provide suitable alternatives. Just prior to the laying period the nest site is often strewn with food brought in by the male bird. This food surplus encourages the female to begin laying, secure in the knowledge that her mate is able to supply her with adequate quantities of food, since she is dependent on him for food throughout the first six to seven weeks of nesting. The eggs are chalky white in colour and almost round in shape. The clutch usually numbers between 4 and 7 (5 is the average) though there may be up to 13 eggs in years when prey is abundant, they are laid at intervals of about two days.

It is often assumed that the same pair of barn owls nest in a particular site year after year, but in fact the barn owl has a relatively short life span with few adults living beyond 3-4 years. It is the nesting site itself which is traditional and if vacated for any reason a new pair of owls will often move in.


Calendar – Summer

May – August

Most females will be incubating the eggs during this period, briefly leaving the nest 2 or 3 times a day for a stretch and to relieve themselves. The male will provide all prey for the pair. When the young hatch the male will have to provide an increased amount of food. 

Each egg hatches after 31 days, Young owls can be heard calling inside the eggs shortly before hatching. The tiny hole appears in a shell one evening and the mother chips off parts of the shell with her beak to help the chick to emerge the following day. At first the youngster will be covered with sparse white down, which is replaced by longer creamy white down over the first fortnight. As two or three days may elapse between the hatching of each consecutive owlet, a brood of barn owls is a strange mixed bunch and the first one can be 30 days older than the youngest. This staggered hatching is a strategy for dealing with a variable food supply as the largest chick gets fed first then the second and so on. Thus, when food is short, the youngest chicks may starve but at least some of the brood will survive.

By about 9-10 weeks old the down has been replaced by adult plumage. Their eager snoring cries, as they demand more and more food, stimulate the adults to feed them. During this period they are more often heard than seen, snoring loudly for food or hissing in the event of disturbance. Up to 50 small mammals a day are brought in during the breeding season and any surplus food is cached away in the event of wet and stormy weather when hunting can become difficult.

Calendar – Autumn

September – October 

The young should have left the nest by now and be wandering in search of their own territories and although studies show that most young owls remain fairly close to their parents territory it is during this period that owls may be seen in unexpected locations.

In England and Wales the average brood size on leaving the nest is three young, but if the food supply is plentiful there will be more than enough to go round and occasionally as many as seven chicks may be reared. They take their first flight when nine weeks old; travelling steadily further afield over the following weeks until they eventually find vacant habitat and establish their own territories, often within a few miles of their birthplace. Of the three which usually leave the nest, usually only one survives to breed the following year. It has been calculated that this average of three must be acheived for a viable barn owl population.

Barn owls have a long breeding season, the longest of any owls. Experts sometimes disagree as to whether or not barn owls will raise a second brood in a good summer as some have argued that any second clutch of eggs laid is a replacement for a failure from earlier on in the year. We have found that in a good year second broods do occur.

Calendar – Winter

November – February

The young will have been on individual territories by the start of winter but the numbers of small mammals will decline as winter sets in, making it more difficult to locate prey. Bad weather can have a disastrous effect on their ability to hunt, it is the time of the highest natural mortality. The survivors will get to know their territory and may establish several roosts which may eventually become nest sites.

Many barn owls remain in their territory throughout the winter, paired with the same mate. If the weather is mild the pair may start courting as early as February but this not usual.