tas project the barn owl
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The Barn OwlA Well Adapted Raptor
Helen Coates
Teachers As Practitioners
Fall 2010
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Taxonomy
Tyto AlbaWhite Owl
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves Subclass: Neornithes
Genus: Tyto
Species: T. alba
Nicknamed Ghost Owl or Monkey-
faced Owl, the Barn Owl is a raptor -
a bird that hunts and eats other
animals. The Barn Owl is
distinguished from other raptors such
as hawks, falcons, and eaglesbecause it is nocturnal and hunts
mainly at night.
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Equipped to Thrive
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Flight Tufted wing tips allow the Barn Owl to fly
almost silently.
A combination of light body weight and a
proportionately large wing span gives the
Barn Owl the unique ability to practically
hover over its prey with minimal wing
movement.
This unique flight adaptation gives the
Barn Owl the ability to surprise his prey
making him an incredibly effective and
sophisticated hunter.
Video
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Owl Facts
Owls mate for life.
The average life expectancy of a Barn Owl is
just one to two years.
Owls are found everywhere except Antarctica.
The neck of an owl has 14 vertebrae, or twice as many
as a human.
They are raptors like the hawk, eagle, and falcon.
There are more than 150 kinds of owls.
A group of owls is called a parliament.
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Description
Female
About 18 20 inches tall
Weighs a little over a
pound
Wingspan is 34 36
inches
Male
Shorter at 16 18 inches
tall
Weighs between 13 and15 ounces
Has a wingspan of 32 to
35 inches
The female is typically larger and
heavier than the male, but neither
weigh much more than a pound.
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Keen Hearing
An owls ear openings are disk shaped.
One ear opening is lower than the other creating phenomenally
keen hearing.
With the ears placed lower on the head, beside the eyes owls can
hear a mouse nibble over a hundred feet away. Barn owls can hunt accurately in almost total darkness
due to this keen hearing.
The facial disks channel sounds into an owls ears.
As the owl lowers or raises its head, it can position its headso the sound reaches both ears at the same time. When this
happens, it means that the source of the sound is directly in-
line with the owls face. Some species of owl also have a
moveable ear flap that they can use to increase or decrease
the sound coming to their ears.
from Dialogue for Kids, Idaho Public Television website
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Another Owl Adaptation
Keen eyesightA Barn Owl has both binocular and 3D vision.
Unusually large eyes
Eyes do not move in the eye socket so no peripheral vision
Head turns more than 270 degrees to a position almost upside
down
Their large eyes admit maximum light to allow accurate vision even
in the darkest of environments
Owls have three eyelids: an upper, lower, and inner one
that moves diagonally across the eye surface to clean
and protect.An owls vision is 50 100 times better than a humans.
(North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service)
From the Owl Pages
website
Nictitating
membrane
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A Barn Owls Diet
Barn Owls eat most any rodent
and have long been considered
a farmers friend.
Some barn owls have been
observed catching and eatingfish.
Barn owl populations increase
in direct proportion to rodent
infiltration.
The average owl eats about
four rodents each night.
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Owl pellets Owls eat their prey whole - fur,bones, and all - and regurgitate
what their body cant absorb in
the form of a black pellet.
Dissection of the pellet and
identification of the bones inside
indicate what the Barn Owl has
eaten. Extensive studies havebeen done on Barn Owl diet,
possible because of the owl
pellets.
owl pellets
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Habitats
Barn owls are aptly named, as they do not build nests, butroost and lay eggs in old barns or hollow trees, and even
church steeples.
They are most often found around grassy and low-lying
areas - pastures and farmland where rodents are plentiful.
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Barn Owl Chicks
Eggs are laid on flat surfaces in two day intervals.
There are usually 4 to 6 eggs in a clutch, but up to 10 if there
is an abundance of food.
The eggs incubate for about five weeks. Barn owl chicks fledge after about 10 weeks.
Barn owls practice birth control and wont lay as many eggs if
food is scarce.
Webcam
webcam of barn owl babies
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Appearance
At just over a foot tall and
weighing about a pound, the
Barn Owl is compact and light,
about the size of a crow.
The brown, orange, and rust
feathers make it easy for the
owl to blend in to the
woodlands where it lives.
Known for its distinctive heartshaped face and snowy
underside, the Barn Owl is
uniquely beautiful.
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Beautiful Babies!
You can see
why they are
often called
Monkey-faced
Owls.
video
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Population in United States
The Barn Owl population
in North Carolina is
strong, as is the case in
most of the southern and
western regions of the
country.That is not the case in
Illinois and other
midwestern states where
pastures and farmland
have given way to urban
development
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Large eyes, a sharp beak,
and facial disks that
channel even the slightest
sound make the Barn Owl
a very unique hunter.
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Websites
The Owl Box
http://www..tv/theowlbox
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Carolina Raptor Center
http://www.carolinaraptorcenter.org/barn_owl.php
http://www.carolinaraptorcenter.org/resident.php#res3
The Arkive Images of Life on Earth
http://www.arkive.org/barn-owl/tyto-alba/video-09b.html
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References
Wikipedia
The Peregrine Fundhttp://www.peregrinefund.org/Explore_Raptors/owls/barnowl.html
The Owl Pages
http://www.owl-pictures.com/barn_owl.html
Backyard Barn Owlshttp://www.barnowlbox.com/us-barn-owl.html
The Oregon Zoo
http://www.oregonzoo.org/Cards/BirdsOfPrey/barn_owl.htm
North Carolina Cooperative Extension Servicehttp://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/agpubs/owls.pdf
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References (cont)
Idaho Public Television Dialogue for Kidshttp://idahoptv.org/dialogue4kids/season9/owl/facts.cfm
The Owl Boxhttp://www..tv/theowlbox
Carolina Raptor Centerhttp://www.carolinaraptorcenter.org/barn_owl.phphttp://www.carolinaraptorcenter.org/resident.php#res3
Missouri Department of Conservation
http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/birds/owls/owlfact.htm
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