![]() "Hissing owl" and, particularly in the U.K. "Golden owl" might also refer to the related golden masked owl ( T. The bird is known by many common names that refer to its appearance, call, habitat, or its eerie, silent flight: white owl, silver owl, demon owl, ghost owl, death owl, night owl, rat owl, church owl, cave owl, stone owl, monkey-faced owl, hissing owl, hobgoblin or hobby owl, dobby owl, white-breasted owl, golden owl, screech owl, straw owl, barnyard owl, and delicate owl. Tyto alba literally means 'white night owl', from the onomatopoeic Ancient Greek τυτώ ( tytō, 'night owl') – compare English "hooter" – and Latin alba, 'white'. As more species of owl were described, the genus Strix (from the Greek στρίξ, strix, "owl") came to refer solely to the wood owls in the typical-owl family Strigidae and the barn owl became Tyto alba in the barn-owl family Tytonidae. ![]() He gave it the scientific name Strix alba. The barn owl was one of several species of bird first described in 1769 by the Tyrolean physician and naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in his Anni Historico-Naturales. Some subspecies with restricted ranges are more threatened. When large numbers of small prey are readily available, barn owl populations can expand rapidly and globally the bird is considered to be of least conservation concern. ![]() The female does all the incubation, and she and the young chicks are reliant on the male for food. Breeding takes place at varying times of the year, according to the locality, with a clutch of eggs, averaging about four in number, being laid in a nest in a hollow tree, old building, or fissure in a cliff. The owls usually mate for life unless one of the pair is killed, whereupon a new pair bond may be formed. Barn owls 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 nocturnal over most of its range but in Great Britain and some Pacific Islands, it also hunts by day. This owl does not hoot, but utters an eerie, drawn-out screech. ![]() The face is characteristically heart-shaped and is white in most subspecies. The plumage on the head and back is a mottled shade of grey or brown that on the underparts varies from white to brown and is sometimes speckled with dark markings. There is considerable variation of size and colour among the approximately 28 subspecies, but most are between 33 and 39 cm (13 and 15 in) in length, with wingspans ranging from 80 to 95 cm (31 to 37 in). Some taxonomic authorities classify barn owls differently, recognising up to five separate species and further research needs to be done to resolve the disparate taxonomies. There are at least three major lineages of barn owl: the western barn owl of Europe, western Asia, and Africa the eastern barn owl of southeastern Asia and Australasia and the American barn owl of the Americas. It is also known as the common barn owl, to distinguish it from the other species in its family, Tytonidae, which forms one of the two main lineages of living owls, the other being the typical owls ( Strigidae). The barn owl ( Tyto alba) is the most widely distributed species of owl in the world and one of the most widespread of all species of birds, being found almost everywhere except for the polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himalayas, most of Indonesia, and some Pacific Islands. ![]()
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