Indiana has a rich biodiversity with thousands of species in unique habitats, but growth and development have changed some of those fragile ecosystems and threaten the wildlife they support. IndyStar is highlighting some of these endangered species and documenting the work being done to conserve them.
There’s a ghostly nocturnal raptor with a heart-shaped face in Indiana keeping the state’s meadows and grasslands safe from rodent infestations.
Barn owls are normally found in large swaths of these grassy areas, whose open spaces are also home to some of their favorite prey, voles. These habitats were abundant in Indiana as recently as the 1980s when heritage farms raised livestock and grew crops at smaller scales.
The owls got their common name after adapting to living among humans and making nests in the wooden barns that dotted these lands. They’re cavity nesters who as a species preferred natural holes in trees before shifting to barns, said Allisyn Gillet, an ornithologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
The nests barn owls build are rather unusual, Gillet said.
After barn owls eat and digest prey, they vomit up the bones and fur in pellets. The owls then set down a layer of these pellets that are actually pretty fluffy to form the base of a nest, Gillet said. The owls then make a bit of a depression, or scrape, in the layer of pellets and lay eggs there.
Barns offered the perfect warm, safe environment for such nests but as the farm industry modernized, farmers plowed over grasslands and replaced wooden barns with buildings made from sturdier materials.
“Barn owls can get in and out of those wooden exteriors because of the holes or spaces,” Gillet said. “Metal siding became a lot harder for them to access barns, and they lost habitat in both the sense of foraging habitat areas to find food and also nesting habit.”
The loss of both habitats spelled trouble for barn owls in Indiana. The owls were one of the first species DNR nongame biologists listed as endangered in 1984. That designation sparked one of the more comprehensive programs DNR has attempted to rehabilitate a troubled species, Gillet said.
Since the owls were put on the endangered list, the DNR has put up around 400 nest boxes in Hoosier barns to help barn owls. About 250 nest boxes exist today, and biologists like Gillet survey them every five years. The last comprehensive check in the winter of 2021/22 recorded 82 confirmed nests, nearly double the previous survey’s count of 43 nests in 2017.
“That was really great,” Gillet said. “We started a more targeted approach putting them where there have been [barn owl] sightings.”
Barn owls aren’t common anywhere in Indiana since they don’t do well in the cold, Gillet said. They are mostly found in the southern third of the state. And while nest boxes are helping the species recover, they cannot go just anywhere.
The boxes need to go in areas with enough habitat to support the owls. Gillet recommends boxes only be placed in spots with at least 100 acres where a barn owl is already known to be located.
Gillet belongs to the Bird Technical Advisory Committee, which is working with ornithology experts to establish goals for the recovery of the species. The group is still working out how to best target barn owl recovery, given that barn owls don’t limit their territory according to state borders. The targeted goal-making process requires coordination between multiple Midwest states.
“Conservation targets can change over time, and we don’t know how the [owl] population is going to react [to certain initiatives],” Gillet said, “but barn owls are on a good trajectory.”
Hoosiers wanting to help barn owls can donate to the DNR’s Indiana Nongame Wildlife Fund. The fund helps biologists like Gillet conserve endangered and threatened animals in Indiana. It also helps show the federal government that Hoosiers support saving endangered species, Gillet said.
Donations can be made during tax season as part of a resident’s refund, or year round on DNR’s website.
IndyStar’s environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach him at karl.schneider@indystar.com. Follow him on BlueSky @karlstartswithk.bsky.social or X @karlstartswithk.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: These owls used to live in barns. Now both the birds and barns are rare
Reporting by Karl Schneider, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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