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The barn owls (Tyto species, particularly Tyto alba) are the most widely distributed group of owls in the world. They are medium-sized owls with large heads and characteristic heart-shaped faces. They have long, strong legs with powerful talons. The term may be used to describe:
The eastern barn owl is native to southeastern Asia and Australasia. The eastern barn owl is nocturnal over most of its range, but in some Pacific islands, it also hunts by day. They specialise in hunting animals on the ground, and nearly all of their food consists of small mammals which they locate by sound, their hearing being very acute.
The barn owl is relatively common throughout most of its range and not considered globally threatened. If considered as a single global species, the barn owl is the second most widely distributed of all raptors, after only the peregrine falcon. It is wider-ranging than the also somewhat cosmopolitan osprey.
The American barn owl is a medium-sized, pale-coloured owl with long wings and a short, squarish tail. However, the largest-bodied race of barn owl, T. f. furcata from Cuba and Jamaica, is also an island race, albeit being found on more sizeable islands with larger prey and few larger owls competing for dietary resources. [3]
The larger barn owl (Tyto alba) needs a force of 30 N to release its prey, and one of the largest owls, the great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), needs a force over 130 N to release prey in its talons. [34] An owl's talons, like those of most birds of prey, can seem massive in comparison to the body size outside of flight.
Puerto Rican barn owl (Tyto cavatica) found in Puerto Rico - may still have existed up to 1912; possibly a subspecies of the ashy-faced owl (Tyto glaucops) Noel's barn owl (Tyto noeli) found in Cuba; Rivero's barn owl (Tyto riveroi) found in Cuba; Cuban barn owl (Tyto sp.) found in Cuba; Hispaniolan barn owl (Tyto ostologa) found in Hispaniola
The barn owl is a medium-sized, pale-coloured owl with long wings and a short, squarish tail. There is considerable size variation across the subspecies , with a typical specimen measuring about 33 to 39 cm (13 to 15 in) in overall length, with a wingspan of some 80 to 95 cm (31 to 37 in).
The species was named by Allan Octavian Hume after the collector Frederik Adolph de Roepstorff who shot it at Aberdeen, Andamans. Hume placed it in the genus Strix. [4] Some authors consider this bird to be a subspecies of the barn owl/western barn owl (Tyto alba), [2] or the eastern barn owl (Tyto javanica), [3] but König, in his Owls of the World, recognizes it as a distinct species; one ...