nocturnal photos on Flickr

Like most owls, the barn owl is nocturnal, relying on its acute sense of hearing when hunting in complete darkness. It often becomes active shortly before dusk and can sometimes be seen during the day when relocating from one roosting site to another. In Britain, on various Pacific Islands and perhaps elsewhere, it sometimes hunts by day. This practice may depend on whether the owl is mobbed by other birds if it emerges in daylight. However, in Britain, some birds continue to hunt by day even when mobbed by such birds as magpies, rooks and black-headed gulls, such diurnal activity possibly occurring when the previous night has been wet making hunting difficult. By contrast, in southern Europe and the tropics, the birds seem to be almost exclusively nocturnal, with the few birds that hunt by day being severely mobbed.

Barn owls are not particularly territorial but have a home range inside which they forage. For males in Scotland this has a radius of about 1 km (0.6 mi) from the nest site and an average size of about 300 hectares. Female home ranges largely coincide with that of their mates. Outside the breeding season, males and females usually roost separately, each one having about three favoured sites in which to conceal themselves by day, and which are also visited for short periods during the night. Roosting sites include holes in trees, fissures in cliffs, disused buildings, chimneys and haysheds and are often small in comparison to nesting sites. As the breeding season approaches, the birds move back to the vicinity of the chosen nest to roost.

Once a pair-bond has been formed, the male will make short flights at dusk around the nesting and roosting sites and then longer circuits to establish a home range. When he is later joined by the female, there is much chasing, turning and twisting in flight, and frequent screeches, the male's being high-pitched and tremulous and the female's lower and harsher. At later stages of courtship, the male emerges at dusk, climbs high into the sky and then swoops back to the vicinity of the female at speed. He then sets off to forage. The female meanwhile sits in an eminent position and preens, returning to the nest a minute or two before the male arrives with food for her. Such feeding behaviour of the female by the male is common, helps build the pair-bond and increases the female's fitness before egg-laying commences.

Barn owls are cavity nesters. They choose holes in trees, fissures in cliff faces, the large nests of other birds such as the hamerkop (Scopus umbretta) and, particularly in Europe and North America, old buildings such as farm sheds and church towers. Buildings are preferred to trees in wetter climates in the British Isles and provide better protection for fledglings from inclement weather. Trees tend to be in open habitats rather than in the middle of woodland and nest holes tend to be higher in North America than in Europe because of possible predation.

This bird has suffered declines through the 20th century and is thought to have been adversely affected by organochlorine pesticides such as DDT in the 1950s and '60s.

Nocturnal birds like the barn owl are poorly monitored by the Breeding Bird Survey and, subject to this caveat, numbers may have increased between 1995-2008.

Barn owls are a Schedule 1 and 9 species.

Population:

UK breeding:

4,000 pairs

Europe:

110-220,000 pairs

Nocturnal Swimmers by CarenPolarBears

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Two nocturnal Canada Geese found on a pond in a Wild Garden in West Wales (Ceredigion)

Maybe they were secretly performing a training for the next Olympic Games 😄

[Dedicated to CRA (ILYWAMHASAM)

😄 HaPpY Sliders Sunday 😄

Tweaked Exposure, enhanced contrast and saturation, added Black, a Vignette, then framed it

and uploaded for the

Sliders Sunday Group

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200

ƒ/4.0

108.0 mm

1/250 Sec

ISO 100

Nocturnal Tranquility by Angelus Capra

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@ Ephraim Bay

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nOcturnal muse by jiM

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created for The Award Tree's ~ Perfectly Painterly ~

Mini Challenge!! ~ 153.0

Continuing the journey of discovery by exploring digital paint/processing possibilities

Thank you for your wonderful comments,

awards,invites and faves...

all are very much appreciated....!

(original photo in 1st comment box)

Nocturnal Animal by Anna

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Macro abstract

Nocturnal by ♥Jinx ♥

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LOTD 654

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Nocturnal Harlequin by THE BEINGS

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NEFEKALUM

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Nocturnal by Elenovela

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Idyll at Elbe Banks

Camera: Panasonic GH 4

Lens: Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8

www.elenovela,eu

Nocturnal Visitor by Ellsasha

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This opossum is, I believe (late in the breeding season for Texas), carrying babies in her pouch; a newborn baby is the size of a jellybean. She comes every night usually as the stray cats are finishing eating. Both cats and opossums get along together (in this instance), in fact, they will sometimes eat together at one of the bigger feeding bowls. I love having them hang in my garden as they eat snakes, snails, cockroaches, etc. They happily also eat cat food, boiled eggs (including shells), fruit and vegetables. Sadly, their lifespan is short, generally in this area, just 2-4 years. Many fall prey to predators or are killed on the roads. They are often so misunderstood.

Nocturnal legs by Pascal Colin

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nocturnal virtuoso by guy clift

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Eastern Barn Owl

Taronga Zoo, Sydney

July, 2023

nocturnal by mitsumi resident

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model : Yukiho Topaz & mitsumi1994

outfits : r2 A/D/E Uru

Colabor88

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R2 Fasihon main store

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Nocturnal by Marcus Darckengard

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A minimalist foggy forest before sunrise.

Nocturnal Melody by Juliet Eton

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Nocturnal Hours by NicolasBum

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This shot was edited entirely for my liking. Only the colours are not modified.

I improved brightness, saturation, clarity, sharpness, structure and I added a little of HDR. :)

Nocturnal waves by Anna

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macro abstract art

Nocturnal Beauty by Kei Edam

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Oenothera biennis (Common evening primrose, ’Mematsuyoigusa’ in Japanese) is a biennial flowering plant native to North America. The flower opens in the evening and attracts nocturnal insects. This species is one of the most common (weedy) evening primroses naturalized in Japan. Taken by the roadside.

Nocturnal lines by Alonso Díaz

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VISIT MY PERSONAL BLOG / VISITA MI BLOG: Cielos Nocturnos II / Nocturnal Skies II

None of my photos are HDR or blended images, they are taken from just one shot

Sony A900 + Carl Zeiss16-35mm+ GND8 filter + torch

Tarifa (Cádiz - Andalucía)

On Black

More Night shots in Cádiz

Nocturnal curassow by K.Verhulst

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Nachthokko

Nocturnal Roughhousing by Gordon Hunter

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Cars and stars in central Alberta.