Endangered barn owl makes ‘extremely rare’ appearance in Calgary

As a wildlife photographer, Brendon Clark sees his fair share of owls, but one recent sighting left him speechless.

“I just thought my mind was kind of playing a trick on me,” Clark said. “I saw the black eyes and the beak of a barn owl. I couldn’t believe it.”

The barn owl isn’t native to Alberta and is seldom seen anywhere in Canada, let alone in a place far beyond the bird’s natural Canadian range, which is small parts of Ontario and British Columbia.

Clark had been looking for a long-eared owl, a bird considered relatively common in Alberta, in a southeast Calgary park on Nov. 20 when some loud ravens alerted him to the presence of the much rarer species.

“When it looked at me, it was like a movie,” Clark said. “It was so surreal.”

He was able to snap a few shots of the skittish bird, which had been at the top of his wildlife photography bucket list, before it took off. He hasn’t seen it since.

Calgary wildlife photographer Jennil Modar also saw the bird at a different time that day.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment to see it here,” Modar said.

In Canada, barn owls are only known to nest in small parts of Ontario and British Columbia. A small number of living and dead barn owls have been found in Alberta over the years, but verified reports are few and far between. The province’s first confirmed live barn owl sighting was in December 1999, northeast of Red Deer.

Barn owls don’t naturally occur in or around the Prairie provinces, where their poor tolerance for low temperatures means they wouldn’t last long during the winter.

The owl’s heart-shaped face collects sound and allows the bird to pinpoint the location of prey at night, making it an effective nocturnal hunter.

But being a night owl isn’t what makes sightings of this bird so rare.

Iconic owls considered endangered in Canada

Barn owls join northern spotted owls and burrowing owls as one of three owls recognized by the Canadian government as an endangered species. Habitat loss due to urbanization and increased agriculture are considered the bird’s primary threats.

The barn owl’s conservation status in Canada is split into two classifications: the western population, restricted to the southwestern portion of British Columbia, is listed as threatened, while the eastern population in Ontario is considered endangered.

NatureCounts, a biodiversity data platform operated by Birds Canada, estimates that there are 650 barn owls left in the country.

Colin Weir, managing director of the Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation, said barn owl sightings are “extremely rare” anywhere in the province. The centre, which cares for injured birds of prey from across Canada, has only taken in two wild barn owls in the last 40 years, he said.

Barn owls are not considered a migratory species, meaning it’s unusual for them to end up that far outside their natural range. Sightings of barn owls are seldom reported in Alberta, with many reports simply considered cases of mistaken identity, Weir said.

“They’re usually young great horned owls rather than barn owls, but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that they could show up.”

When it comes to habitat, barn owls live up to their name: they tend to nest in old structures. Weir said those buildings being torn down and replaced with new ones is one of the factors behind the endangered bird’s habitat loss.

Barn owls don’t have to deal with habitat destruction as much in Europe, where the older architecture they prefer to nest in is often left intact rather, Weir said.

“In Europe, they’re known as the graveyard owl, or churchyard owl, and they’re quite common in churches and graveyards.”