A nest of rare barn owls was found in western Wisconsin after a two-decade hiatus

Laura Schulte
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A rare barn owl nest was found in Wisconsin for the first time in more than 20 years.

Barn owls have returned to Wisconsin after a two-decade hiatus.   

A nest of barn owls was found in La Crosse recently after a young bird fell from a dead tree in a resident's backyard. After further inspection — including putting a camera scope inside the dead tree — an entire family was spotted, including a pair of adult owls and three owlets. 

In early October, the young owl that fell from the tree was reunited with its family in good condition. The owls remained in the tree at least through the end of October, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. 

The discovery of the barn owl family in a nest was the first in 22 years despite an uptick in unconfirmed sightings in the southern part of the state.

The owls typically nest and roost in tree cavities, abandoned barns and buildings, which have been harder to come by in Wisconsin lately, leading to the decrease in the number of birds found in the state, said Ryan Brady, DNR conservation biologist and bird monitoring coordinator. 

"We don't have the farms of the old days, where you had maybe more abandoned buildings and more nooks and crannies where rodents might be or a cavity in a barn where the bird could nest," he said. "So in a sense, there was just less habitat available to them."

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Barn owls can be identified by their white, heart-shaped face, which lacks the ear tufts seen on other familiar owls, according to the DNR. Their head, back and upper wings are a mix of buff and gray, while their face, body and underwings are white. 

Barn owls were observed in Wisconsin in 2018 during field work for the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II, but were listed as possible breeders.

Their high-pitched screech is another distinctive feature, Brady said. 

"It is so loud and high pitched and kind of eerie," he said. "It's kind of an alarming thing to hear in the dark of night. But the reality is they're relatively rare, so not many people get to see or hear them." 

Barn owls are one of the most widespread birds in the world, residing on every continent aside from Antarctica, Brady said. It's so rare to see the owls in Wisconsin because the birds tend to prefer warmer temperatures. The population of the birds declined so swiftly that they were placed on the endangered species list in the 1980s, according to the DNR. 

Only three barn owl nests were detected between 1995 and 2000, with the last sighting in 1999 in Grant County. Sightings after that were so few and far between that the DNR removed the species from the endangered species list due to a lack of records. 

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In recent years, sightings have begun to increase as nest box programs in Iowa, Indiana and Illinois have helped to reestablish the population. Warmer winters have also likely contributed to the increased number of sightings. 

If an annual breeding population is established in Wisconsin, barn owls could once again be considered for the state's endangered and threatened species list. To support barn owls, the DNR asks Wisconsinites to report sightings, leave dead trees standing when possible and refrain from using pesticides and rodenticides, which can sicken birds who pick up affected mice or rats. 

Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on Twitter at @SchulteLaura