Information & Downloads
How to manage land for Barn Owls
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Managing land for Barn Owls involves providing the ideal habitat for field voles, their main prey. This can best be described as "long rough tussocky grass with a deep litter-layer". It can take the form of whole fields, field margins, field corners, woodland rides, or tree plantations and can be created on farms, smallholdings, or even in large gardens (in rural areas).
Where do Barn Owls feed (short video)
RSPB Leaflet Farming for birds - Barn Owl
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Habitat Management
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LLP time lapse slideshow - typical grassland
Habitat creation and management is BY FAR THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR WILD BARN OWL CONSERVATION, and for this reason there are a lot of pages and slideshows devoted to it elsewhere on the site. It's not possible to tell you all about managing land for Barn Owls on one page!
However, there's a huge amount of information on foraging habitat - creation and management in the Barn Owl Conservation Handbook
Whether you are a major landowner getting involved in an agri-environmental grant scheme or a smallholder who'd like to encourage Barn Owls to your site, there will be something of use to you in the links opposite.
Please browse the links, it is surprising what you can do to help Barn Owl populations even if you only have a small amount of land. Within a landscape, Barn Owls will use small patches of suitable habitat to hunt over. If you live in a rural area and have a small patch at the bottom of your garden, consider managing it as rough grassland, but do bear in mind that Barn Owls are not woodland birds.
Entry Level Stewardship for Barn Owls
Higher Level Stewardship for Barn Owls
Is your local landscape suitable?
Optimum habitat in Britain
It is also worth remembering that making these areas suitable for Barn Owls will benefit a huge number of other species of bird, butterfly, insect, amphibian...the list goes on.
Safeguarding Wild Sites
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The Trust's work - habitat advisory
Site Assessment Service
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Contacting us
Pictures of rough grazing (not the best habitat)
Pictures of poor habitat
