WHAT A HOOT

Facts about moonfaced creatures...

The Barn Owl

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Tyto alba APPEARANCE: Heart-shaped faces, long toes, sharp talons and powerful feet for catching prey. Females have darker brown feathers around the rim of the facial disc, as well as darker bars on the tail and small black spots on their chest and underside of the wings. Males are generally lighter and have pure white underneath. WINGSPAN: Approx. 850mm HEIGHT: Approx. 250mm DIET: They hunt small mammals, mostly field voles. They have extraordinarily sensitive hearing and can see movement in very little light to help them hunt at night.

If you manage land, the best way to encourage barn owls is to increase their food supply by creating strips or patches of rough grassland at least 4 metres wide, with a littler layer of dead grass, at least 7cm deep. Visit barnowltrust.org.uk for more details.