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BTO Owl Appeal

Farmland - Barn Owls

The Barn Owl is the best-studied of the five British owl species and much effort has gone into providing both breeding sites and better habitat in which to hunt for mice and voles. Thanks to BTO research, we even have a reliable estimate of the number of breeding pairs (there are about 4,000). Sitting at the top of the farmland food-chain, the Barn Owl should be an ideal species to act as an indicator of the success of new agricultural subsidy schemes? Unfortunately not! The Barn Owl was originally part of the Farmland Bird Index, used by the Government, but we did not have enough information for its continued inclusion in the index.

A BTO Barn Owl Monitoring Programme (BOMP) was set up in 2001, with generous support from the Sheepdrove Trust. This year, funding has been topped-up by English Nature, partly to support BOMP, but also to see whether Foot-and-Mouth Disease operations might have affected Barn Owls.
A top-up of £5,000 per year for 2005/06 and 2006/07 would put the BOMP project on a firmer financial footing, help to promote the survey and provide better feedback to volunteers.
The results available from the Project Barn Owl National Survey (1995-97), from BOMP and from previous surveys need to be explored, to see how Barn Owl can be included within the Farmland Bird Index again. This would make sure that Barn Owls do not get forgotten.

Priorities - Farmland	Priorities - Woodland	Priorities - Other
Barn Owl	Tawny Owl	Little Owl
Long-eared Owl	Short-eared Owl	Get Involved

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Registered Charity Number 216652. This page last updated: 27 February, 2006