Barn owl (Tyto alba)

There she goes, silently gliding, smoothly flapping, taking an oblique dive into the rough grass and emerging with supper. Her round face is a finely tuned satellite dish, messaging to concealed, asymmetrically positioned ears, enabling pinpoint accuracy to find prey hidden by undergrowth or darkness. Some 2,000 small rodents are eaten by an owl each year—five or six per day—but, in a cold, wet nesting season, rodent numbers plummet and many owls and chicks starve. Yet, if all goes well, inquisitive owlets will be seen craning their heart-shaped heads out of the nestbox or wall cavity, eager for the next meal. ‘Nest’ material is unusual; eggs are laid on a pile of pellets—the indigestible bones, fur and feathers of their prey.

In many cultures, barn owls are still persecuted by suspicion, due to the bird’s crepuscular and nocturnal lifestyle, the strange mobility of its head and its apparent luminosity when flying in low light—like a ‘ghost bird’. Many wild barnies die in their first year; adults may survive, on average, four years.