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B
arn owls are large birds with white, heart-shaped faces. They are
found all over the world. Barn owls live near fields, pastures, and
any places where voles and other small animals are found.
Barn owls don’t tear or chew their prey. They swallow their prey whole.
But they cannot digest the bones, fur, claws, and teeth of their prey.
About 20 hours after feeding, barn owls regurgitate, or spit up, these
bits. They come up as oval balls of fur and bones called owl pellets. The
pellets are from 3.75 to 7.5 centimeters (cm) long.
Barn owls don’t tear or chew their prey. For this reason, the pieces of
a complete skeleton of a small rodent can almost always be found in a
pellet. Sometimes a pellet might contain the remains of several small
animals. You can use a toothpick to pull a pellet apart. Then you can put
together at least one skeleton of a barn owl’s meal from the pellet.
Barn owls aren’t the only birds that spit up pellets. All owls regurgitate
indigestible parts of their food as pellets. Owl pellets can tell scientists
the numbers and kinds of small prey that live in an area.
Barn Owls
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