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American Barn Owl | Tyto furcata
Amerikaanse kerkuil | Lechuza de campanario
The American Barn Owl is the barn owl of North, Central and South America, now usually treated as a species separate from Western Barn Owl Tyto alba of Europe, Africa and western Asia. All barn owls in the guide area belong to this species. It is resident from northern Mexico to Panama, mainly in open and semi-open country with fields, pastures and villages. It hunts at night, quartering low over open ground and locating prey mainly by ear.
Voice
A drawn-out, hoarse, rasping scream, roughly shrrreeeh, often given in flight. At the nest and when disturbed it hisses; young beg with a persistent snoring sound. Alarmed birds also snap their bills.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
32–40 cm, with a large heart-shaped white facial disc, dark eyes and long feathered legs. The upperparts are golden buff washed with grey and finely dotted black and white; the underparts range from white to pale buff with small dark spots. In flight the bird looks almost entirely white from below, with long rounded wings and a short tail. Females are on average larger and often warmer-toned and more heavily spotted on the breast than males. Birds from the south of the guide area are on average smaller and often darker than those from northern Mexico.
Confusion species
Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus also hunts low over open ground, but has yellow eyes set in dark surrounds, short ear tufts, a streaked breast and a dark patch at the bend of the wing, and flies more often at dusk or by day. Striped Owl Asio clamator has long ear tufts and heavily streaked buff underparts. In a lamp beam a flying barn owl can resemble a white egret, but the large round head and silent, fluttering flight are distinctive.
Habitat
Open and semi-open country: savanna, pasture with scattered trees, fields and milpa, sugar cane, dry forest with clearings, semi-desert and forest edge; also villages and towns. Absent from large tracts of unbroken rainforest. By day it roosts in hollow trees, palms, caves, rock crevices, church towers, barns and derelict buildings, where it also nests. Food is mainly rats, mice and other small mammals, supplemented with bats, birds and lizards.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Resident in almost the whole guide area, from Baja California and northern Mexico to Panama, most numerous in the lowlands and in open farmland; locally also in the highlands. Also on some offshore islands. Outside the guide area from southern Canada to Tierra del Fuego and in the Caribbean.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Best at dusk near old buildings, churches, haciendas and caves, or at night along country roads through open land and cane fields, where the white underside shows up in a lamp beam or headlights. Pellets and white droppings below a roost give away an occupied site; the scream is often heard before the bird is seen.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Forest clearance and expanding agriculture tend to create new hunting habitat for this species. Road deaths, rat poison and the loss of nest sites in old buildings are local risks; in rural areas the species is sometimes persecuted out of superstition.
Scientific name
Tyto furcata | (Temminck, 1827)
Temminck described the species in 1827 as Strix furcata; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Tyto was introduced in 1828 by Billberg. Tyto comes from Ancient Greek tutō 'owl'. furcata is Latin for 'forked', from furca 'fork'; exactly what Temminck was referring to is unclear. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cuba.