Bird Cams Around the World

Here is a part of a post by LeeLee about Barn Owls that she posted under the Cobb topic:

Ok folks, here's the deal with the barn owls: Theoretically they could live to 10 or 15 years, like ones in captivity do. However, they are small owls, and very unassuming owls compared to Barred or Great Horned owls. Great Horned owls are the "Tigers of the Sky", meaning they are killing machines and they kill whatever is in their territory, just like tigers, polar bears, and grizzlies. They consider the barn owl food, and are one of the 3 contributing reason why barn owls only live 2 -3 years most of the time. Nestboxes for barn owls have to be at least a mile from any known great horned owl site, in order for the young to survive and not be killed the first 30 days on their own by a gho, as is often the case. Starvation is the number 1 reason barn owls die within 90 days of being on their own. Since the father teaches them how to hunt, I think a common reason for starvation is if this is his first clutch, or if there are so many (5,6, or 7 owlets) that he cannot spend the time he needs showing and verifying that the owlets each excelled at catching their own food. Also, not every place we want a barn owl nestbox set up can sustain barn owls. They may lay eggs, have them hatch, but later the young starve. It may have enough voles for the parent 2 owls, but just is not the ideal spot that can sustain 2 parents AND 5 more owlets. The third reason for their mortality rate is car headlights A nestbox should be a good distance, even half a mile, from any major road with traffic. A small country road is ok, but busy streets or highways is a no no for a barn owl nestbox. You can find this and more info at the barn owl trust site, just google it and check out the info on barn owls and the preferred habitats for placing nestboxes. Because life is so hard for these beauties, I like to get the word out about their challenges, so we owl lovers can really help them and spread information that not many people know, then our barn owls can live LONG lives

Here is a link to the Barn Owl Trust site out of England. http://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/index.html

I just posted some links about an Israeli project "Barn Owls (and Common Kestrels) as pest control"

==> here

and now I see it might have fit better in this thread. So I cross link herewith.

Bosuil, thanks for the info. Very timely, as I am considering putting together a local program with handouts here in Virginia.