A dweller in old gables, church towers, and farm buildings; a good friend of man for it destroys great quantities of rats, mice and voles. It is chiefly a dusk and night hunter, but will occasionally hunt in broad daylight, looking like a large pale buff moth as it quarters the fields and hedgerows. It makes no nest, and lays its eggs on the bare boards or other hard surfaces of its retreat. The barn owl does not hatch all its eggs together, but at intervals, beginning to incubate as soon as the first egg is laid. Consequently, the nestlings in one nest are invariably of different sizes.
