#ooc. theres also a lot more to barn owls but im typing on mobile and im to lazy to turn on my computer-

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ooc. fun fact(s)! barn owls have uneven ears on purpose to help them hear their preys (mice, vole, and shrews) heartbeats up to iirc 20-40 ft (6-12 m) away and under three ft (one m) of snow! another advantage they have for hearing is that their facial muscles are specially evolved to shift and redirect sound to their ears.

barn owls prefer to live in meadows (fields) that have trees within eyesight and make their nests inside knots pf trees or (and get this) . . . inside of barns. because farmers have fields and there are generally trees that surround the farmhouse to act as a natural ac before ac units were made. "then why dont they live inside the farm houses?" their hearing is highly sensitive so they tend to stay in the barns where their won't be noisy humans doing chores and being loud at all times of the day.

think of their face like a satellite dish. the roundness and the concave feature of both of them helps the frequency (signal)/sound go to the receptors/ears. isn't that just cool? another neat adaptation is their (flight and tail) feathers having a soft edge to them so that there is no audible wing flaps so that they can more successfully hunt.

there also several other species of owls in the tyto(inae) genus but the barn owls is easily the most recognizable. a semi well known history note about them is that they are believed to be the orgins of the banshee due to their high pitched shriek often heard during twilight or nighttime.

they are a medium sized owl that was 5~ lb (2~ kg) and their plumage can range from a molted brown with red to an almost dusty white. there is as of yet no sexual dimorphism but invasive surgeries can be done to sex them. which is highly not advised because of how delicate they are with experiencing the world.

a barn owls (any owl really) raised in captivity and who has bonded with a human can understand when theyre being laughed at and can feel shame and embarrassment. often leading to them secluding themselves and shying away from the human who laughed at them. hand raised barn owls can also tell when humans are laughing at something because of them. its like how a dog (whose species coevolved with humans to the point they can instinctively read our faces and understand our tone of speech) knows when we're laughing at their failure (bad) or when we're laughing at something cute/funny that they did (good).

a captive barn owls can live between 10-20 years but 30 years isnt unheard of. in the wild their average life span is 3-5 years however very few make it through their first year due to being inexperienced with flying with cars. as hunters of burrowers they fly low to the ground around headlight height and can easily get confused by the all encompassing loud sound and bright lights and fail to react in time. it's like throwing a flashbang right in front of you when youre grocery shopping and you have to jump out of a cars way when seconds before you were looking at bread inside the store. not a fun time and extremely harder than you would think to evade the car with your life.

(Warning! Death and Starvation!)

if they experience extreme emotional distress or live through a traumatic experience then they will be highly likely to state themselves by refusing food until they die. barn owls also mate for life and if their mate dies then the widower will also starve itself by sitting on a tree branch and stare into nothing until they die. this is a highly depressing and stressful final event for them because they are in tune with their emotions and have strong emotional bonds with their mates.