The Barn Owl/Rodent Study Just published in the Journal of Pest Management, Newport Beach, California: From 2011 through 2013, researcher Mark Browning and a team of students from U.C. Davis and Columnes River College saturated a 100-acre vineyard south of Sacramento, California with 25 barn owl nest boxes, eventually resulting in a population of 36 […]
Barn Owls in Wyoming Wyoming is one of those states where there is simply not enough information to build an accurate picture of barn owl populations. The Wyoming Breeding Bird Atlas shows most observations of barn owls and confirmed nest sites in the eastern third of the state, however, the southwest corner also has its […]
Barn Owls in Nebraska State biologists report that barn owls are doing well overall in the state, with good populations in the southern panhandle where escarpments and cliffs provide numerous nesting sites, in the North Platte Valley, and in the southwestern and south central portions where many grasslands are still intact. The eastern half of […]
Barn Owls in Pennsylvania From shortly after the clearing of the forests by the first pioneers till the 1960’s, barn owls were common in the myriad small farms that dotted the countryside from east to west. Barns, sheds, abandoned buildings, and large dead trees provided nesting sites; and hedge rows, fallow fields, pasture, hay, and […]
Barn Owls in Oklahoma Barn owls were once very common in much of Oklahoma which harbored huge areas of natural grasslands. They are still particularly abundant in the panhandle of the northwest dominated by short grass prairie, and the southwest with its mix of mesquite grassland and mixed-grass plains. The northeast, west-central, and southern regions […]
Barn Owls in Utah Utah is one of those states where extensive research has been conducted on barn owls. Researchers Dwight Smith and Carl Marti conducted a number of studies in the state. It was Smith who famously discovered a colony of barn owls in the buildings of an abandoned steel mill near Overton in […]
Barn Owls in New Jersey New Jersey barn owls have experienced the most recent downturn of any population in the United States. Unlike so many eastern states where barn owls declined dramatically by the 1960’s, as late as the 1990’s barn owls were being found in very good numbers in the farmlands of New Jersey. […]
Barn Owls in New Mexico Barn owl distribution in New Mexico is defined by altitude—the mountains exclude barn owls– but excellent populations exist in the eastern third with over one million acres of farmland, the southwestern corner with lots of agriculture, and a central corridor of farmland formed by the mid-central Arizona New Mexico Plateau, […]
Barn Owls of New York As shown by the range map, barn owls are more common in the southern half of the state, and most common near the southern coast. The barn owl’s best populations occur at Kennedy Airport, Staten Island, and the north shore of Long Island around Oyster Bay. Other known breeding has […]
Barn Owls in New Hampshire As the second most forested state in the nation, with forest covering 81% of the land area, and with routinely severe winters, the barn owl is essentially non-existent in New Hampshire. As testimony to its tenacity in expanding its territory, and despite these very adverse conditions, an actual breeding record […]
Barn Owls in Nevada The most arid state in the union, Nevada is comprised of four basic eco-regions. The Northern Basin and Range is generally dry, but range land is widespread and irrigated agriculture occurs in eastern basins between the mountains. The Sierra Nevada in the western part of the state is a high mountain […]
Barn Owls in Montana Biologist Denver Holt of the Owl Research Institute in Charlo, Montana reports that the first record of nesting in the state was in 1992, a surprisingly recent occurrence. Recently a number of nests have been discovered in the Mission Valley at an elevation of 3000 feet, where fertile soils, pasture, cattle, crops, […]
