TAS Project the Barn Owl

8/8/2019 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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TAS Project the Barn Owl

Documents

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