Have you seen a barn owl recently?
Have you seen a barn owl on the Wirral peninsula or in Cheshire?
Please let us know any details you know by filling in the form at the bottom of the page.
You may have seen a large white bird, likely at night time in your headlights. May also appear in early mornings.
They can appear slow and buoyant flight, often back and forth across an open field, searching for prey, about 1 to 2 metres above ground.
They live mainly in open farmland (not woodland), over rough grassland and salt marsh. May sit on an open perch such as a fence post, looking and listening for prey.
Sound: Call is an eerie, piercing shriek (nothing like ‘kewik’ / ‘tu-who hoo-hooo’ of Tawny owl). Chicks make a distinctive rasping, hissing sound.
Signs: Regular perches can be spotted by large, white vertical streaks of droppings. Black/grey ‘sausage’ shaped pellets (about the size of a man’s thumb) consisting of indigestible fur and bones of prey items are regurgitated at favourite roosting places.
Sighting reports are hugely important to us and may help us to locate and protect breeding pairs. It may also enable us to provide vital data at a future date, in respect of planning applications or designation of a particular area for habitat protection.