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, […]
Barn Owls of Mississippi With a large cattle and hay industry, extensive rice production, numerous poultry farms, and southeastern saltwater marshes, Mississippi possesses excellent barn owl habitat in many areas of the state. Although the Mississippi State Department of Wildlife has conducted no in-depth studies, and Turcotte and Watts in The Birds of Mississippi (1999) […]
Barn Owls in Minnesota Rare in the cold and snowy climes of Minnesota, the barn owl is occasionally seen in farmland, mainly in the southern part of the state. However, they have also been seen near Duluth and other northern Minnesota sites. According to the raptor center of the University of Minnesota, there have been […]
Barn Owls in Michigan Listed as endangered in Michigan, the last breeding pair was recorded in 1983. A single barn owl was sighted in 2000, so when a barn owl was found on the floor of a barn in Coopersville in 2012, it was a notable event. Barn owls, which are very secretive, may be […]
Barn Owls in Massachusetts More populous in the southern end of the state, the highest populations occur on Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and off shore islands, all of which have milder winters than the mainland. Occasional sightings have also been recorded in the Housatonic River Valley in the west and the Connecticut River Valley that runs […]
Barn Owls in Maryland The far western counties, Garret and Allegany, dominated by forested ridge and valley systems, are quite poor in barn owls, but the Great Valley area,, known as the Hagerstown Valley in Maryland, comprised of Washington and Frederick counties (with the exception of the Blue Ridge Mountains that cut through Frederick) provides […]
