Diet of the Barn owl Tyto alba in a rural area in Gozo

Abstract

The Barn Owl Tyto alba is a rural as well as a sub-urban species in the Maltese Islands, recorded breeding in crags on sea and inland cliffs, valleys, fortifications, bastions, and quarries (Despott 1916, Sultana & Gauci 1982). Its breeding biology has never been studied in the Maltese Islands due to several disadvantages, including the scarcity of the bird, the inaccessibility of the nest sites and the constant human persecution. The last known breeding pairwas shot in 1988 (Fenech & Balzan 1988). Data on the Barn Owl's diet in Malta have been published previously by Sultana (1971), Schembri & Cachia-Zammit (1979), and Borg & Cachia-Zammit (1988). These data, together with the data collected since 1986, are presented in Table 1.