Western barn owl
Tyto alba
A pale barn owl with a heart-shaped face and no ear tufts. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident and breeder on the 2024 national bird checklist.
At a glance
Key facts in one look
Diet
Rodents and shrews
Status in Georgia
Year-round resident
Size
33–39 cm
Habitat
Farmland and buildings
Family
Tytonidae
Conservation
LC / Red List EN D1
Human interaction: It is not venomous and is harmless unless approached. It may strike near a nest. Wild birds must not be taken. Seeing one near farms is normal where it has established; it is a nocturnal predator of rodents and shrews, not a threat to people.
Overview
What is Western barn owl
The western barn owl (Tyto alba) is a medium-sized owl of the barn-owl family Tytonidae, not the typical-owl family Strigidae. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia codes it YR-R: a breeder present throughout the year. Seasonality is classed as high-quality (code A). Occurrence quality is high (H), with photographs, ringing data and sound recordings. The usual Georgian name is ბუხრინწა. Adults are about 33–39 cm long at species level, with a heart-shaped facial disc and dark eyes. It is not a threat to people. IUCN lists the species as Least Concern. The 2024 checklist assigns LC globally and nationally. Georgia’s legal Red List (Resolution No. 190, 2014) still lists it as EN D1 (very small population); that assessment predates the recent lowland expansion documented in Georgian research.
Last updated
Gallery
Western barn owl in photos
Photo: Ivan Vezenković
Kovilovo, Belgrade ·
Photo: Caroline Legg
Dumfries and Galloway ·
Photo: Caroline Legg
United Kingdom ·
Photo: Ivan Vezenković
Kovilovo, Belgrade ·
Photo: Bjoertvedt
Predjama, Slovenia ·
Identification
How to identify Western barn owl
A pale medium-sized owl with a heart-shaped face, dark eyes and no ear tufts. Confirmed in Georgia as a year-round resident on the 2024 checklist. The screech call and white underparts set it apart from woodland owls.
- 01
Length at species level is about 33–39 cm, wingspan about 80–95 cm, mass often about 250–350 g (heavier in some subspecies). Females are usually slightly heavier than males. The head is smoothly rounded with no ear tufts. The facial disc is heart-shaped and usually pale; the eyes are dark. The bill is short and hooked. The legs are long; the tail is short and rather square. In flight the bird looks pale, with dangling legs and an undulating path.
- 02
Upperparts are grey-brown to buff with fine mottling; underparts are white to buff, sometimes with dark speckles. Georgian birds are not assigned to subspecies on this page; field identification is to species. Belik (2024) notes several western Palearctic forms expanding in northern Eurasia, including T. a. guttata, T. a. alba and T. a. erlangeri; visual subspecies ID is unreliable. Juveniles are fluffier and may look darker until they moult.
- 03
Tawny owl (Strix aluco) is a darker woodland owl with a round head, dark eyes and no heart-shaped face; it hoots. Long-eared owl (Asio otus) has ear tufts and orange eyes. Short-eared owl (Asio flammeus) is an open-country bird, often active by day, with short tufts. Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) is much larger, with ear tufts and orange eyes. Little owl (Athene noctua) is small, with yellow eyes. Eurasian scops owl (Otus scops) is small, tufted, and a breeding migrant in Georgia. Tengmalm’s owl (Aegolius funereus) is a smaller forest owl with yellow eyes. This atlas has pages for tawny owl, scops owl, Tengmalm’s owl and little owl.
- 04
It is not a threat to people. Do not handle it. A pale, heart-faced owl screeching at night over Georgian farmland or around old buildings is this species, not a woodland hooting owl.
Biology
Habitat, diet, behavior, and conservation
Habitat and range
In Georgia it is tied to lowland agricultural landscapes, farm buildings and open country with small mammals — not closed high mountain forest. Kitel and Javakhishvili (2025) collected pellets in 2023–2025 at 34 roosting or breeding sites in five administrative regions: Adjara, Imereti, Kakheti, Kvemo Kartli and Samegrelo–Zemo Svaneti. Sampling was densest in Kakheti and Kvemo Kartli. Kitel, Songulashvili and Javakhishvili (2025) treat the species as having colonised Georgia in recent decades and expanded across much of the lowland agricultural zone within about 25 years. Earlier sources already noted establishment from the early 2000s. This page colours those five regions on the atlas map from pellet-site evidence; it does not claim presence in every municipality or in high alpine belts. Species-level habitat is farmland, grassland, marsh edge and open country with nest or roost sites in barns, ruins, church towers, bridges and other cavities; nest boxes are used where provided. A separate national elevation band for Georgia is not published here; the diet study’s sites were lowland.
Diet
Georgian diet is documented. Kitel and Javakhishvili (2025) identified 6,627 prey items from pellets. Mammals made up 98.6% of items. Rodents were about 53% by number and 75% by biomass; shrews about 45% by number and 23% by biomass. Frequent mammalian prey included Macedonian mouse (Mus macedonicus), social vole (Microtus socialis) and white-toothed shrews (Crocidura). Birds, bats, amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates were rare. Geographic variation occurred; some sites were shrew-dominated. Indigestible parts are coughed up as pellets under roosts. The authors note a potential role in agricultural rodent control; that is an ecological inference from diet, not a measured farm trial on this page.
Behavior
It is mainly active at night. By day it roosts in a cavity or quiet building. It does not give the deep hoot of woodland owls; the usual contact and flight call is a drawn-out, harsh screech or scream. Soft hisses and begging noises occur at the nest. Nesting is in a building cavity, tree hollow, cliff niche or nest box; no stick nest is built. Clutch size varies with food supply; species-level literature often cites about four white eggs as a typical average, with higher clutches when rodents are abundant. Incubation and nest care are mainly by the female while the male brings food. Those breeding figures are from the wider range, not a tabulated Georgian nest sample on this page. The 2024 checklist treats the species as a breeding resident in Georgia. Do not handle it; birds may strike near the nest.
Conservation
BirdLife International assesses Tyto alba as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. The 2024 Georgian checklist assigns LC globally and nationally. The legal Georgian Red List of 2014 (Resolution No. 190) lists ბუხრინწა as EN D1 because of a then very small population. Recent peer-reviewed work describes rapid lowland expansion since colonisation in the early 2000s; the legal list has not been updated on this page’s sources. Report both statuses rather than choosing one silently. Documented pressures at species level elsewhere include loss of nest sites in old buildings, road mortality and secondary poisoning from rodenticides; that is not a ranked national threat list for Georgia. It is listed on CITES Appendix II, so international trade is regulated. Do not catch wild birds.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the most important questions about Western barn owl.
Yes. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia treats it as a confirmed year-round resident (YR-R). Evidence includes photographs, ringing and sound recordings. Recent studies describe colonisation since the early 2000s and expansion in lowland farmland.
Look in lowland agricultural areas and around farm buildings, ruins and other cavities. Pellet sampling in 2023–2025 documented roosting or breeding sites in Adjara, Imereti, Kakheti, Kvemo Kartli and Samegrelo–Zemo Svaneti. Do not assume even presence in high mountains.
Heart-shaped pale face, dark eyes, no ear tufts, pale underparts, long legs. At night listen for a harsh screech, not a deep woodland hoot. Tawny owl is darker and round-faced.
About 33–39 cm long at species level, wingspan about 80–95 cm. There is no separate measured Georgian series on this page.
Mainly small mammals. In a 2023–2025 pellet study, mammals were 98.6% of prey items; rodents dominated biomass, with shrews also common. Birds and other prey were rare.
All year, according to the 2024 checklist. It is easiest to detect at night by voice or at dusk near nest and roost buildings.
Yes. YR-R on the 2024 checklist means a breeding resident. Nests are in cavities in buildings or similar sites. Georgian clutch dates are not tabulated here.
It is not venomous. It may strike near a nest; do not approach. Globally Least Concern. The 2024 checklist codes national status LC, while the 2014 legal Red List still lists it EN D1. Do not catch wild birds.
- Budagashvili & Javakhishvili 2024 — The birds of Georgia (Sandgrouse 46)
- SABUKO — Bird checklist
- Kitel & Javakhishvili 2025 — The diet of Barn Owl (Tyto alba) in Georgia
- Kitel, Songulashvili & Javakhishvili 2025 — Expansion of the Barn Owl Tyto alba in Georgia (Sandgrouse 47: 209–218)
- BirdLife DataZone — Common Barn-owl
- IUCN Red List — Tyto alba
- IOC World Bird List
- Avibase — Georgia bird checklist
- საქართველოს მთავრობის დადგენილება №190 (2014) — წითელი ნუსხა
- Natural History Museum — Barn owl (Tyto alba)
- Belik 2024 — Current Expansion of the Barn Owl in Northern Eurasia
- Wikimedia Commons — Western Barn Owl (Ivan Vezenković, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Barn Owl (Caroline Legg, CC BY 2.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Barn Owl face (Caroline Legg, CC BY 2.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Western Barn Owl guttata (Ivan Vezenković, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — Tyto alba guttata Predjama (Bjoertvedt, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- xeno-canto XC1090793 — Tyto alba (Thierry THOMAS, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
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