Diet of the barn owl 'Tyto alba' near Tamworth, New South Wales

Abstract

The diet of the Barn Owl 'Tyto alba' has been studied intensively in Australia, though mostly in the arid zone (reviewed by Higgins 1999; Debus et al. 2004). The few comprehensive studies in the temperate agricultural zone have been conducted mostly in southern Victoria, with one study from north-western Victoria still unpublished (see Higgins 1999). In New South Wales the few dietary studies in the agricultural zone, excepting one substantial sample from Hillston, have been of small numbers of pellets and prey individuals (Rose 1996; Higgins 1999). This paper details the diet of a pair or family of Barn Owls in the Peel Valley west of Tamworth, in the sheep–wheat belt in northern inland New South Wales.