The Latin name for the barn owl is Tyto alba alba

Barn owls make a variety of shrieks, hisses and snoring sounds,

but they don't hoot (that's the Tawny Owl)

Barn owls generally swallow their prey whole but are unable to digest the hair and bone. After each night's hunting the owl regurgitates one or

two black pellets

Barn owls are amazingly efficient hunters – soft feathers, dark

adapted eyes and sensitive hearing

Their soft feathers are not very waterproof so rainfall is a problem. A wet barn owl is unable to fly silently

and will not catch prey as easily

On average a wild Barn Owl eats about 4 mice and voles per night,

that's 1,460 per year.

The main cause of Barn Owl decline is lack of food (mainly field voles, wood mice, and common shrews).

Ideal barn owl habitat is rough, tussocky grassland with a deep litter layer as this is where field

voles (the Barn Owl's main prey) are most numerous.

Before deciding to encourage Barn Owls make sure the land is at least

1km from the nearest motorway, dual carriageway, or similar road.

Buffer strips' are simply strips of grassland along field margins and

can be very beneficial to Barn Owls by providing valuable hunting areas

Awkward or unproductive corners of fields can be transformed into

patches of rough, tussocky grass

Farmers who choose the Entry Level Stewardship Scheme can

receive £30 per ha per yearBritains' 4,000 pairs of Barn Owls

produce roughly 12,000 young3,000 barn owls a year are killed on

roadsBetween August and the end of

November, young Barn Owls move well beyond their parents' home

range

Research suggests that when young owls encounter a major road

they are killed very quickly.

Under normal circumstances, nest boxes should not be put up within

1km of a main road

The best way to make roads safe is to plant high hedges or lines of closely-spaced trees next to the road surface on both sides - forcing birds to fly higher whilst crossing

It may be worth putting up a nestbox somewhere - you never know when

they might turn up!

Barn Owl decline was because of hedges being removed and bigger fields with no rough grass margins

In 1932 there was 12,000 pairs in the UK

In the late 1999 there were only 4,000 pairs in the UK

The Barn Owl Trust is the only national organisation that's entirely dedicated to conserving Barn Owls

A dead barn owl was found by a cyclist on the A53 near to Telford – the RSPCA said it was a young bird

Birdwatchers had reported watching a pair of owls nesting in an old barn

near Telford

A local farmer remembered watching owls on his farm when he

was a child

There has been more barn owls in Shropshire because farmers are

paid to not plough all their fields and leave rough grass

Mice and voles live in rough grass and are the prey of owls and hawks