The breeding population of the Barn Owl - Tyto alba - increased from approximately 100 pairs thirty years ago to about 3000 pairs today. This fantastic achievement is largely due to the efforts of the Barn Owl Protection Foundation and themany volunteers in cooperation with farmers and citizens in the Netherlands.

According to the mission of the Foundation, its activities are aimed at Barn Owl protection by means of providing information and education, placing of wooden box nests and collecting various data in order to monitor the size of the population in the Netherlands.  
The rural network dedicated to Barn Owl protection managed by the Foundation consists of about 1000 volunteers active in 16 regions supervising more than 10,000 box nests for Barn Owls.  The members of the Foundation construct and put in place box nests, ring Barn Owls and collect various data in order to know the structure of the Barn Owl population as well as the behavior of individual owls better. The generated data are stored centrally and are comprising around 30,000 records dealing with breeding and almost 5000 ring recoveries from dead or alive individuals. The Foundation supports the volunteers through providing box nests and materials for data collection whenever possible.

The Foundation publishes a newsletter annually intended for people housing box nests like farmers. This newsletter contains information on the size of the Barn Owl population and its breeding success as well as background information on other owls with rural preference and other interesting facts and technical advices concerning Barn Owl protection.
The educational aspect is taken care of via the organization of a conference dedicated to Barn Owl protection twice yearly. Besides information on the Barn Owl is made available via the website of the Foundation and by means of disposition of brochures on selective topics dealing with Barn Owl protection.

The Barn Owl - Tyto alba - is the most widely distributed species of Owl in the world, and one of the most widespread of all birds.

Barn Owls can catch and eat up to 1,000 mice each year. Great news in South Africa - more and more farmers are trying to attract barn owls to help control rodent populations in the Vineyards of the Western Cape and in Agricultural lands in South Africa.

Bird watching

These Owls can be seen on the following Aves Birding Tours/Safaris/Adventures: -

Aves Arid Birding Tour / Safari

Aves Eastern Cape Birding Tour / Safari.

Aves Highlands / Tembe Birding Tour / Safari.

Aves KZN Birding Tour / Safari.

Aves North East Birding Tour / Safari.

Aves North West Birding Tour . Safari.

Aves Western Cape Birding Tour / Safari.

Aves West Coast Birding Tour / Safari.

Aves Western Cape Birding Day Tours / Safari.