Male or Female Barn Owl?
How do you tell the difference between a male and female barn owl?
Determining whether a barn owl is male or female can be challenging, and requires a keen eye, patience, and typically a good photograph or two of the barn owl whose sex you are trying to work out. There's no single feature that gives you the answer, but put a few clues together and you can usually tell.
Everything on this page comes from years of watching barn owls, both through my own camera lens and on the live nest cameras here in the Peak District. I have also created a drawing of the male and female barn owls side by side, and slightly exaggerated the differences, so you can understand how to distinguish between a male and a female barn owl.
ðĶ In short: female barn owls are usually a little bigger and darker, with more spots on the chest and flanks, a buff-coloured throat and a darker rim around the face. Males are usually paler, with a cleaner white chest and few or no spots. Always look for several clues together, not just one.
ð Male or female at a glance
| Clue | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| âïļ Size | Slightly smaller, around 300g | Slightly bigger, around 360g |
| ð Facial disc rim | Paler | Slightly darker brown |
| ðĻ Overall colour | Lighter, cleaner white chest | Darker, richer brown |
| Throat | White | Buff-coloured "scarf" |
| âŦ Spots | Few or none | Flecks on the flanks, often across the chest too |
| ðŠķ Tail | Lighter | Slightly darker |
| ðĪ Brow stripe | Faint | Often more noticeable (my own observation) |
| ð Behaviour | Gets preened more; does the hunting while she's on the nest | Does most of the preening; sits on the eggs |
ð The 10 clues to look for
Working out if a barn owl is a male or a female needs a keen eye, patience, and often, clear photographs. My illustrated guide, slightly exaggerating the key differences, is also available as a PDF, so please feel free to use it.
1. âïļ Size
Like most owls and birds of prey, female barn owls are larger than males. The male weighs approximately 300g, while the female weighs slightly more, at around 360g, making her typically 20% heavier than the male. By looking at the owls, it's actually quite challenging to work out which owl is larger, even when they are standing next to each other. Still, these size differences, although subtle, can help identify the male and female of a nesting pair. When the female sits and incubates her eggs, and then starts raising the young, she's totally reliant on the male bringing her food, and this extra size and weight all help the female to survive.
2. ð The facial disc
The facial disc feathers of the barn owl are the feathers around the barn owl's face that give it that classic and adorable heart shape. Females often have slightly darker brown feathers around the rim of the facial disc. Sometimes it's hard to see the darker colouration of these feathers, but at certain angles you can see the rim's colours more clearly. The female's rim feathers are usually only slightly darker than a male's, but if you have the two owls side by side, it can generally be observed.
3. ðĻ Overall colour
The female barn owl tends to show a slightly darker, richer brown colour over most of its body, in line with the darker facial rim. Male barn owls, however, usually display a lighter colour overall, with their chest area commonly being a cleaner white than the female's. The whiter chest tends to be a good indicator that it could be a male barn owl, but females are also occasionally known to have a fairly white chest, so look for multiple clues to work out if a barn owl is male or female.
4. Who wears the buff-coloured scarf?
Female barn owls generally have a slightly buff-coloured patch covering their throat, while the male's throat feathers are whiter. Sometimes the buff colour is only noticeable in natural daylight, and it's too subtle to be seen on live barn owl web cameras. The buff-coloured throat area serves as a really good clue that it is a female, particularly if the owl also has spots or flecks on its chest or flanks.
5. âŦ Spot the spots
Females tend to have small flecks or spots down their front flanks. These spots can extend across the chest plumage, or only to the sides. Males generally have purer white plumage with little or no flecks or spots, although they too can have some speckled marks. If the chest of the barn owl is adorned with many specks or spots, and the throat area is a buff colour, it is very likely to be a female.
6. ðŠķ Tales of the tail feathers
As with the overall darker colour of the female, the female barn owl typically has slightly darker tail feathers than the male. Again, you will really need to see them side by side to spot the difference in the colouring.
7. ðĪ The brow stripe My own observation
This is something I've noticed from watching barn owls live, but I haven't seen it written about anywhere else. Barn owls have a narrow vertical line of small brown feathers running from the centre of the head down to the top of the beak, like a ridge down the "nose". Both males and females have it, and you can often see it best when the wind catches and lifts these feathers.
In my observations, this stripe is often more pronounced in females, especially the darker ones. It's worth adding to your list of clues. As with the others, though, use it alongside the rest rather than on its own.
8. ð Courtship behaviour
Barn owl courtship involves mutual preening and calls known as chittering. They are often seen grooming each other and roosting side by side. During the bonding process, the female frequently does most of the grooming and preening of the "henpecked" male. This slight imbalance in preening serves as an early visual cue to help distinguish between the female and the male barn owl.
9. ð Territorial behaviour
Because of her instinctive desire to nest and breed, the female may show stronger territorial behaviour than the male. This can include not wanting to leave a nesting territory, and warning off other females that stray into it. If you are lucky enough to spot a pair of barn owls looking for a place to nest, they will check out potential nests together. The female will usually go into the nest and look around, while the male will often stay outside, and may only briefly look in after she's left.
What I've found: tawny owls behave in a very similar way when choosing a nest.
10. ðĨ Who sits on the eggs, and who hunts?
If you are fortunate enough to have cameras in a barn owl nest box during the breeding season, you can see which is the female, as she sits on the eggs. However, if you don't have nest cameras, you can identify the male, since it is always the male that does the hunting, while the female stays on the eggs to incubate them. The female is confined to the nest for approximately two months, as the eggs hatch and the owlets grow.
ð§Đ Join the dots to find the answer
Remember, you ideally need to look for multiple clues to work out the sex of a barn owl, as one clue alone is not generally enough.
I had two particular barn owls that had only a few flecks on their flanks and none on their chest, and their chest area was actually quite white. However, they both had a few flecks and a buff-coloured throat, and both had a slightly darker colouring overall, so I suspected they were both female. I watched them a lot, and they "acted" like females: both of these barn owls henpecked and preened the slightly smaller male barn owl, as if they were caring for their "man". It was the way they behaved, along with the visual clues, that led me to conclude they were female. And when they laid eggs, my conclusions were confirmed!
Tip: a good photo taken in natural daylight makes a huge difference. The buff throat, darker facial rim and spots can all be hard to see on a night-time infrared webcam picture, which is black and white.
ðŽ Watch: Poppy and Oscar explain
Prefer to watch? In this short, fun video for all ages, our cartoon barn owls Poppy and Oscar share the clues. Then try spotting them yourself on our live barn owl camera.
More about the video, and the free fact sheet that goes with it: Boy or Girl Barn Owl? with Poppy and Oscar.
â Questions people ask
How can you tell if a barn owl is male or female?
Look for several clues together. Females are usually a little bigger and darker, with more spots on the chest and flanks, a buff-coloured throat and a darker rim around the face. Males are usually paler, with a cleaner white chest and few or no spots.
Are female barn owls bigger than males?
Yes. A female weighs around 360g and a male around 300g, so she's roughly 20% heavier. The difference is hard to see, though, even when they're side by side.
Do male barn owls have spots?
Usually only a few, if any. Males tend to have a cleaner white chest, while females typically have more spots on their flanks and chest.
Do female barn owls have a darker stripe down the face?
In my own observations, often yes. Barn owls have a narrow line of small brown feathers running from the centre of the head down to the top of the beak. Both sexes have it, but it's often more pronounced in females, especially darker ones. It's best used alongside other clues.
Can you tell a barn owl's sex on a webcam?
Sometimes. Spots and overall colour can often be seen, but the buff throat and darker facial rim are much easier to spot in daylight than on a black and white infrared picture. Behaviour helps too: the female is the one that sits on the eggs.
ð More from Barn Owl Live
- ð Download this guide as a PDF, free to use
- ð§ Boy or Girl Barn Owl? Our fun video for kids
- ðĨ Try it yourself on our live barn owl camera
- ð My free book: The Easy Guide to Barn Owls
- â Barn owl facts: over 100 questions and answers
- âķïļ Barn owl and wildlife videos on YouTube
- ð· My latest wildlife photos on Instagram @PeakyWildlife
Paul ðĶ