Tyto alba
(Scopoli, 1769) · speciesAt a glance
Sources12 archives
Databases and archives Tyto alba's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation20 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility413 344 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System240 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI58 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics119 specimens↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
Paleobiology DatabasePBDB consortiumfossil record↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
IOC World Bird ListIOCbird checklist↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The barn owl (Tyto alba) is the most widely distributed species of owl in the world and one of the most widespread of all species of birds, being found almost everywhere except for the polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himalayas, most of Indonesia, and some Pacific Islands. It is also known as the common barn owl, to distinguish it from the other species in its family, Tytonidae, which forms one of the two main lineages of living owls, the other being the typical owls (Strigidae). There are at least three major lineages of barn owl: the western barn owl of Europe, western Asia, and Africa; the eastern barn owl of southeastern Asia and Australasia; and the American barn owl of the Americas. Some taxonomic authorities classify barn owls differently, recognising up to five separate species; and further research needs to be done to resolve the disparate taxonomies. There is considerable variation of size and colour among the approximately 28 subspecies, but most are between 33 and in length, with wingspans ranging from 80 to. The plumage on the head and back is a mottled shade of grey or brown; that on the underparts varies from white to brown and is sometimes speckled with dark markings. The face is characteristically heart-shaped and is white in most subspecies. This owl does not hoot, but utters an eerie, drawn-out screech. The barn owl is nocturnal over most of its range; but in Great Britain and some Pacific Islands, it also hunts by day. Barn owls specialise in hunting animals on the ground and nearly all of their food consists of small mammals, which they locate by sound, their hearing being very acute. The owls usually mate for life unless one of the pair is killed, whereupon a new pair bond may be formed. Breeding takes place at varying times of the year, according to the locality, with a clutch of eggs, averaging about four in number, being laid in a nest in a hollow tree, old building, or fissure in a cliff. The female does all the incubation, and she and the young chicks are reliant on the male for food. When large numbers of small prey are readily available, barn owl populations can expand rapidly; and globally the bird is considered to be of least conservation concern. Some subspecies with restricted ranges are more threatened.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology13
Life cycle & reproduction11
Diet & foraging7
Habitat & environment4
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Tyto alba has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
The complete instruction manual Tyto alba carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The solid bar is the fossil range: the span between the oldest and the youngest fossil that palaeontologists have assigned to Tyto alba. Above itBeside it, the bars count how many dated finds fall in each slice of time; the tallest bar is labelled, and heights use a square-root scale so that thin slices stay visible next to rich ones. Read this as how well each stretch of time is preserved and studied — thick bars mean plenty of the right kind of rock and plenty of collectors, which is related to, but not the same as, how common it actually was. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil. Where the DNA reaches further back than the oldest fossil, the gap is hatched: the ghost lineage. It means the lineage was already out there, but has left us nothing we have dug up yet.
How it livedPBDB
Record type413 674 records
Origin
Range
Depth
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions54 of 106 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Barcelona, ES | 280 |
| Denver, US | 123 |
| München, DE | 89 |
| US | 81 |
| Tacoma, US | 70 |
| Washington State University, Charles R. Conner Museumlocation not on record | 68 |
| SMNHTAUlocation not on record | 67 |
| Natural History Museum, Aarhus Denmarklocation not on record | 51 |
| Stockholm, SE | 50 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 50 |
| Edmonton, CA | 45 |
| Provincia di Livornolocation not on record | 42 |
| CASlocation not on record | 42 |
| Paris, FR | 36 |
| Zacatecas, MX | 35 |
| Liverpool, GB | 34 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 33 |
| Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 33 |
| Honolulu, US | 32 |
| Geneva, CH | 32 |
| Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record | 30 |
| Delaware Museum of Nature and Sciencelocation not on record | 25 |
| CBDClocation not on record | 25 |
| Ohio State University - Bird Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM)location not on record | 24 |
| Brussels, BE | 24 |
| University of Nebraska State Museumlocation not on record | 23 |
| IMEDEAlocation not on record | 23 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 22 |
| ASNHClocation not on record | 21 |
| EL PASO, US | 18 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 18 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 17 |
| Auckland, NZ | 17 |
| Moore Laboratory of Zoology, Occidental Collegelocation not on record | 17 |
| Bourges, FR | 16 |
| Salzburg, AT | 15 |
| Albany, US | 15 |
| BG-NMNHSlocation not on record | 13 |
| Mongolian Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 12 |
| Universidad de Caldas (UCaldas)location not on record | 10 |
| South Kensington, GB | 10 |
| Buenos Aires, AR | 10 |
| Louisiana State University, Museum of Zoologylocation not on record | 9 |
| Cambridge, US | 9 |
| INMAlocation not on record | 9 |
| Iowa City, US | 8 |
| Ithaca, US | 8 |
| Philadelphia, US | 8 |
| Chicago, US | 8 |
| Copenhagen, DK | 7 |
| Washington, US | 7 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 6 |
| ASUlocation not on record | 6 |
| Helsinki, FI | 6 |
| Zoological Museum, Moscow Lomonosov State Universitylocation not on record | 6 |
| Tilburg, NL | 6 |
| Royal Saskatchewan Museumlocation not on record | 5 |
| Kristiansand, NO | 5 |
| Saint John, CA | 4 |
| Vancouver, CA | 4 |
| University of Victorialocation not on record | 4 |
| Santa Cruz, US | 4 |
| 3 | |
| Seattle, US | 3 |
| Zografou, GR | 3 |
| Universidad Católica de Manizaleslocation not on record | 3 |
| Chicago, US | 3 |
| Los Angeles, US | 3 |
| Tromsø, NO | 3 |
| KU Leuvenlocation not on record | 3 |
| Philip L. Wright Zoological Museumlocation not on record | 3 |
| Indiana State Universitylocation not on record | 2 |
| Tapachula, MX | 2 |
| Musée des Confluenceslocation not on record | 2 |
| Abilene Christian University Natural History Collectionlocation not on record | 2 |
| SNSDlocation not on record | 2 |
| Universidad del Valle (UniValle)location not on record | 2 |
| Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (PUJ)location not on record | 2 |
| Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt (IAvH)location not on record | 2 |
| San Diego, US | 2 |
| MZLUlocation not on record | 2 |
| Berkeley, US | 2 |
| EEZAlocation not on record | 1 |
| Jurica-Suchy Nature Museumlocation not on record | 1 |
| Science Museum of Minnesotalocation not on record | 1 |
| Bonn, DE | 1 |
| Central Michigan University Museum of Cultural and Natural Historylocation not on record | 1 |
| Cincinnati, US | 1 |
| New Haven, US | 1 |
| PROMIGAS S.A. E.S.P. (Promigas)location not on record | 1 |
| Museo de Historia Natural “Gustavo Orcés V"location not on record | 1 |
| Naturalis Biodiversity Centerlocation not on record | 1 |
| Oulu, FI | 1 |
| Ugentlocation not on record | 1 |
| Tall Timbers Research Stationlocation not on record | 1 |
| Ohio Wesleyan University Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 1 |
| Gothenburg, SE | 1 |
| Banyoles, ES | 1 |
| Muzeum Górnośląskie w Bytomiulocation not on record | 1 |
| University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrateslocation not on record | 1 |
| Puerto Ayora, EC | 1 |
| Valparaiso, CL | 1 |
| Aves de Chile (UNORCH)location not on record | 1 |
| University, National Zoological Collection of Surinamelocation not on record | 1 |
| Naturhistorisches Museum Wienlocation not on record | 1 |
| Londrina, BR | 1 |
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Where the DNA of Tyto alba was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.