Barn Owl Mating

How barn owls find a partner, keep a partner and start a family.

The barn owl breeding season begins quietly. There's no big song and no bright feathers. Instead, as winter loosens its grip, pairs start spending more time together, and the nights fill with soft twitters, screeches and a lot of fussing over each other's feathers. If you watch a nest box camera at this time of year, you're watching one of the most tender parts of a barn owl's life.

💍 Do barn owls mate for life?

Usually, yes. Barn owls tend to stay faithful to their partner for as long as both birds are alive, and they stay in the same area year after year, so a pair can simply pick up where they left off each spring.

Sadly, barn owls don't live very long in the wild. Many die young, from road traffic, starvation in a hard winter, long spells of bad weather, poisoning and many other causes. When one bird dies, the survivor finds a new partner, often quite quickly. So while barn owls do mate for life, many of them have more than one partner over their lifetime simply because their first partner didn't survive.

Not always for life

Real life can be a little messier. On our live streams, we've watched a new female arrive in a territory, push out a bonded female and take over her mate. Because barn owls stay in ranges they know and trust, the male simply bonds with the new female. Now and then, in a very good vole year, a male will also breed with two females at once. So the honest answer is that they're usually faithful, but not always.

🔍 Finding a mate

Many barn owls already have a partner. A pair often roost apart for much of the year. As the breeding season gets closer, they start roosting closer and closer together, until in the last week or two before egg-laying they're usually side by side at the nest site.

Owls without a partner have to work harder. Unpaired birds of both sexes fly around in spring screeching over and over, sometimes for many minutes at a time and often well after dark. It's their way of saying "I'm here, and I'm available", and an answering screech from another owl can be the start of a new pair. It's not unusual for young birds to find a mate in their very first autumn, by moving into a territory where an owl has lost its partner.

🎁 Gifts, grooming and hard work

Barn owl courtship is mostly about food and touch.

Food gifts

Through late winter and early spring, the male becomes the main provider. He brings voles and other small animals to the female, first as gifts and then, once she's settled at the nest site, as her only food. In the last ten days or so before egg-laying, he may bring in ten to seventeen prey items in a single day.

That's a real test, because early spring is the hungriest time of year for owls. A male who can't keep up may delay the whole nesting attempt. It's also why the female snatches the food from him so fiercely. Here's why female barn owls snatch prey from their mate.

Preening and chattering

While the female waits, the pair spend hours sitting close together, sometimes only a few centimetres apart. They preen each other with their beaks and chatter softly with twitters and squeaks.

What I've found: in the pairs I've watched, the female usually does most of the grooming and preening of the male, who ends up rather henpecked! This small imbalance is one of the early clues that helps you tell a male from a female barn owl.

Chases and mating

At dusk, the pair may chase each other in and out of the nest site, screeching wildly. Mating becomes more frequent as the days go by, often just after the male has delivered food. It carries on through egg-laying and even into incubation, and then slows down and stops once the nest is busy with hungry owlets.

🏠 Choosing the nest site

When a pair look for a place to nest, they often visit possible sites together, like a couple house-hunting.

What I've found: the female usually goes in first and has a good look around. The male tends to stay outside, and may only take a quick peek in after she's left.

Barn owls often return to a site they've used before, so a good spot can be used for many years. They look for somewhere dry, dark, quiet and high, close to open country and rough grassland to hunt over. If you'd like to give them somewhere to nest, here are my barn owl nest box sizes and checklist.

🪶 A nest that isn't really a nest

Barn owls don't build a nest. There are no twigs and no carefully woven cup. The female settles in a dry hollow and lays her eggs on whatever is already there.

Before she lays, she often moves the old pellets around, breaking them into smaller pieces and scattering them across the floor with her talons. The result is a soft, warm, furry bed that soaks up moisture very well.

🥚 Eggs and incubation

A typical clutch is four to six white eggs, laid two to three days apart. Unlike most birds, the female starts sitting as soon as the first egg is laid, so the eggs hatch one at a time, in the order they were laid. She does all the incubating, which takes around 30 to 32 days, and she hardly leaves the nest.

The male is the only provider throughout, hunting for both of them and bringing food to the nest. He may keep this up for more than two months before the owlets are ready to fly.

Once the owlets hatch, the female keeps them warm and tears up food for them, while the male carries on hunting. As the owlets grow, she joins in, and both parents bring food. The young make their first flights at around eight weeks old. You can read the whole story in once the barn owl lays eggs, what happens next?

🚫 Please give them space

⚠️ Courtship and egg-laying are the most sensitive times of the barn owl's year. Barn owls are protected by law in the UK, and it's an offence to disturb them at or near an active nest. The best way to enjoy this time of year is from a distance, or through a camera fitted outside the breeding season.

You can watch it all happen, from courtship to first flight, on our live barn owl nest camera. And you never know, you might see Buster meet his next partner!

❓ Questions people ask

Do barn owls mate for life?

Usually, yes. They tend to stay with the same partner for as long as both are alive. Because many barn owls die young, though, a lot of them end up with a new partner after losing their first.

When do barn owls mate?

Courtship starts in late winter and early spring, and mating becomes frequent in the weeks before egg-laying. It continues through laying and into incubation.

How do barn owls find a partner?

Unpaired owls fly around their area in spring, screeching repeatedly to advertise that they're available. An answering screech from another owl can start a new pair.

Do barn owls build nests?

No. The female lays her eggs on a bed of old pellets, which she breaks up with her talons to make a soft, dry layer.

How many eggs do barn owls lay?

Usually four to six, laid two to three days apart. They take around 30 to 32 days to hatch.

📚 More from Barn Owl Live

• 🎥 Watch our live barn owl nest camera
• 🥚 Once the barn owl lays eggs, what happens next?
• 🐭 Why female barn owls snatch prey from their mate
• 🔍 How to tell a male from a female barn owl
• 🏠 Barn owl roosting

Paul 🦉