barn owl prey cam outside entrance to nest box

Barn Owl 2011 Prey Cam
Tyto alba

A video camera with motion detection was employed to record all prey brought to the nest box or exterior perch during the period from the the day the last egg hatched until the adults stopped providing prey at the nest box. During the early nestling phase, the camera was mounted on back of the nest box directly across from the entrance. This provided a good view of the adult entering the box with prey in its mouth. Later, when older nestlings tend to move forward in the box and block the view of the entrance, the camera was mounted outside on the barn wall, focused on the exterior perch. The photo at right shows the exterior camera mounted in a pvc tube and supplemental light provided with a 15 watt tungsten bulb. Some data was lost during this nesting, due to power failures from electrical storms. For more details of the graphs below, see the previous page



Barn owl nestling swallowing vole Nestling barn owl swallowing vole Adult Barn owl entering nest with prey Adult Barn owl passing prey to fledgling Two fledgling barn owls claiming the same vole Three fledgling barn owls share the same perch Adult Barn owl passing prey to nestling Adult barn owl leaving perch after delivering vole to fledgling Adult barn owl offering meadow vole to nestling
Number of barn owl prey items by date
number of barn owl prey items by hour
percentage of barn owl prey items by species

The 31 unidentified prey items were, likely, mostly meadow voles. The 11 mice were likely all white footed mice

Back to the 2011 Barn owl nesting

Species of interest in our yard - photos and articles
barn owl American kestrel purple martin barn swallow Eastern bluebird
tufted titmouse Eastern phoebe yellow shafted flicker tree swallow chimney swift
house wren big brown bat Carolina wren brown thrasher catbird
Eastern wood-pewee cedar waxwing Northern mockingbird Turkey vulture

© 2012, American Artifacts and Richard Van Vleck, Taneytown, Maryland.