The Barn Owl – Nonnetjies Uil

Nonnetjies Uil, also known as the common barn Owl.

Facts about this beautiful owl:

The Barn Owl (in Afirkaan the Nonnetjies Uil) is a medium-sized owl with a wingspan of 100-125 cm and a size of 32-40 cm. The weight is 400-700 g. It has a white or mostly with underside, a heart-shaped, white face and golden-grey coloured upper parts. Females are larger than males and more spotted on the breast. The spots may signal to a potential mate the quality of the female. Barn owls generally hunt small rodents, especially voles and mice, but they also eat young rabbits, bats, frogs, lizards, birds and insects. On our farm we have lots of rabbits which is the perfect food for this owl. Barn owls breed in buildings (barns!), in natural cavities, above or below ground, among rocks or in tree holes where they scrape shallow depression on nest floor or reuse old nest sites. There are 3-5 eggs in a clutch, which are incubated by the female while the male feeds her for about 31 days.

Visit our farm to learn more about this animal and get the change to view one up close 🙂

Images by: Devey Gliniister took these lovely pictures.