Probably because they are associated with the night, owls cause an irrational fear in people with their piercing eyes, sharp talons and hooting sounds suggesting something sinister. But that is hardly the case. Being nocturnal and predators at that, they hunt and move about in the night.
But if you thought owls only hoot, then think again. A particular species is known to screech and scream. Even hiss like a snake when confronted by intruders. Welcome to the world of the barn owl. Belonging to the family Tytonidae, they go by the scientific name of Tyto Alba (meaning mottled owl inhabiting barns).
One night while returning from work I noticed screeching sounds coming from an old banyan tree. Curious to know what it was, I paid a visit to the same place some time later. It was after 9 pm. The flow of traffic had reduced with not many people milling about. And what do I see but three young barn owls peering at me from the deep hollow of the massive banyan tree trunk, just a few feet above the ground.
The owlets were screeching loudly seemingly making conversation with one another and flapping their short wings. Their eyes glowed like grey marbles! Soon, their parent, a large male barn owl came there with a rat in its talons and perched itself near its young ones. On noticing human presence, the mother which was there did not feed the young ones and instead moved away holding the dead rat in its beak and hid somewhere in the branches. After some time it flew down as if injured and hopped on the ground — a ploy to divert attention from its young ones.
Sometimes it is difficult to identify the young ones (juvenile) and adults as they look similar in size, shape and colour. My subsequent visits were always greeted with screeches and I found that all of them had successfully reached adulthood.
After this night-time experience, I was able to sight colonies of barn owls and realised that they were quite common in the neighbourhood. Sometimes, during moonlit nights I would notice solitary birds white in colour, flexing thier wings and flying in utmost silence just above my head. Much later I learnt that the tiny serrations on its wings help the barn owl to break the air flow on its wing and reduce noise. At dusk I have seen them perched in vantage points near garbage dumps waiting for rodents to emerge.
Barn owl feeds on rodents, small birds, frogs, young rabbits and other such animals. These birds have acute hearing and can detect sound position and distance even in dense vegetation and total darkness.
Measuring up to 50 cm in size, these creatures possess a bright white heart shaped face with large black eyes and sharp talons. The upper part of their body is golden grey while the lower part is pure white. Females are larger in size than males as normally seen in owls.
Large owls are known to feed on the barn owls as do snakes. Human beings in their ignorance are known to kill them. What they do not realise is that barn owls help to control rodent population. It is estimated that one small family can eat around 1,000 rodents per year.
In Britain, the barn owl has been voted as the favourite farmland bird as it eats more rodents than other owls and hence is the farmers’ friend. In Hindu mythology, Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth has the white barn owl as her vehicle.
Should you wish to know more about this nocturnal creature, watch the 3D film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.