Normally Barn Owls are a strictly nocturnal species so photographs of them in flight are difficult to come by. After all, photography does require light. But as I’ve mentioned before on my blog, in my area Barn Owls occasionally hunt in daylight during harsh winters when snow on the ground prevents them from catching enough rodents at night to sustain them.
1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
I captured this image last December 27th at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge at 9:29 AM so the bird was obviously flying in full daylight. I saw it hunting far in front of me so I turned my pickup at an angle on the road, turned the engine off and just waited to see if the bird might eventually fly my way as it hunted the canal edges next to the road.
Miraculously it did just that and I was able to get quite a few shots as it approached. I’ve posted some of the others previously but this one is new to my blog. In many of those images there is no catch light in the eye because the owl was looking down as it hunted so I appreciate the light in the eye here.
Folks in most other areas of the country (and in the world for that matter) marvel at our opportunity to see and photograph Barn Owls flying in daytime during cold winters here in northern Utah and I have a working theory that just might (or might not…) explain the phenomenon. Barn Owls don’t like extreme cold – if you look at a range map you’ll see they’re not found or are rare in most of the coldest areas of the US. Many readers will recall that the Barn Owl I cut out of barbed wire in Montana last year was an extremely uncommon find in that frigid state.
Conversely, without cold temperatures and long-lasting snow the birds won’t be hunting during daytime. So perhaps northern Utah is in that narrow geographical band where Barn Owls are found in fairly good numbers and it’s cold enough to have sufficient long-lasting snow (in unusually cold winters) to make them hunt during daytime but it’s not so cold that they won’t live here.
Since Barn Owls are essentially non-migratory they can’t/don’t use that behavior as an avenue of escape from the cold.
I’m speculating of course and if I’m right it may only be part of the equation but it seems logical to me.
Ron
When we have harsh winters with cold temperatures and deep snow on the ground, the owls in northern Utah suffer. They can not get to their prey though the deep or very crusted snow.
Exactly, April.
My bucket list contains so many things that don’t belong in buckets. And would/should escape…
Love the owl, and am so grateful when you feature them.
I like your theory too. It makes sense to my ill-educated self.
It makes sense to me too, EC. But in the past I can think of a lot of things that made sense to me but didn’t turn out in the end…
Wow I absolutely love this shot, Ron!
Thanks, Tin. I know you have a thing for Barn Owls (as do I…)
A wonderful image and beautiful, warm light…a bird I’ve never been lucky enough to see in the wild…..
I hope you get to see one someday, Patty – put it on your bucket list!
Marvelous Ron!
Thanks, Charlotte.
Nice image, Ron. What I’ve read on Barn Owls is that they are largely temperate and tropical species. They lack a layer of fat that other most owls possess, and they don’t have thick insulating feathers on the feet and legs. Here in California, we don’t find them much above about 2000 feet, and CA is not nearly as nippy in winter as Utah! We do occasionally see them in daytime, though I believe they are the only species so far that has proven in tests to be able to hunt in total darkness, with hearing alone. Their ears are amazing! Still, they are hunters, and while they probably see only very limited color, they can see in the daylight, and if a hunter hasn’t eaten when it is “supposed” to, it will go on hunting until it gets a meal.
They really don’t do well in extreme cold, Sallie – partly for reasons you mention. It isn’t uncommon to see ours shivering hard in the cold and the cold often kills many of them. A couple of years ago a disabled Barn Owl was rescued on the causeway to Antelope Island and it turned out that it had a frostbitten face. I believe that bird was rehabbed and released.
Speaking as someone who has seen exactly one owl in a tree one time in my life, love seeing your owl photos Ron. Great capture of a gorgeous bird.
Thanks very much, Colin.
Great image Ron. I like your theory. This puzzle is something I think about frequently. We have Barn Owls living on our property and on neighboring farms. I have only seen one in the daytime and that was a juvenile that was exhausted from hunting all night and did not make it back to the nest box before dawn. Northern Utah is the only place I have seen them flying in daylight. The San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado is a very cold high altitude valley. I started trying to raise awareness of installing Barn Owl boxes in that area to help with pocket gopher control and realized that Barn Owls seem to be very rare there. (I might still put up a few boxes to see…). There are some daylight photos of Barn Owls flying in California that I see. Talking with birders in California they do see daytime Barn Owls flying. I have a hunch that fog might be a factor too. Perhaps if it is very foggy they hunt for longer periods over the course of a day? I am not sure why this would be though, since they hunt so well by sound? I did read that if Barn Owls get wet they cannot hunt (as well) due to wing noise. The UK is another place where I have seen daytime Barn Owl flight images. We do know that it seems like the daytime hunting behavior in Utah is correlated with long periods of cold air and snow on the ground. Interesting puzzle…
Thanks, Ed – if you think my theory might be valid that lets me know that I’m not crazy (necessarily…).
I’ve seen a fair number of photos of Barn Owls in flight taken in the UK too. Most of them appear to have been taken in very low light right at dusk or dawn. As you know, sometimes ours hunt most of the day.
Interesting theory about hunting during the day. I have seen them in El Paso during the day (at Hueco Tanks), and they were flying, though not hunting. As I recall it was in June not cold the day we saw them. Of course I was so excited to see them that the weather probably didn’t matter. Further recollection tells me it was probably in June of 2015, because of the group we were with when we saw them.
I’m sure you count yourself lucky to have seen that bird flying in daylight, Susan. Very few folks ever do.
Good shot, Ron. 🙂 I’ve never seen one here in North Central MT as we are out of their range. It always amazes me how other owls do fine and even nest in the cold here. The Great Horned we have occasionally will be out late afternoon/early morning but that is generally during the short nights of summer when they have hungry mouths to feed. 🙂 The all do what they have to do it seems. 🙂
Judy, I’ve never seen one anywhere in Montana, except for the one on the wire and that was the extreme southwest corner of the State.