Reversed Sexual Dimorphism and Differential Prey Delivery in Barn Owls (Tyto alba)

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satish Pande ◽  
Neelesh Dahanukar
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Tyto Alba ◽  
Barn Owls ◽  
Reversed Sexual Dimorphism

scholarly journals Sex identification comparison of barn owls (Tyto alba javanica) using morphological features and molecular-based methods

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54
Author(s):  
Shakinah Ravindran ◽  
Safwan Saufi ◽  
Wan Nur Amni ◽  
Intan Ishak ◽  
Noor Hisham Hamid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Success Rate ◽  
Morphological Traits ◽  
Captive Breeding ◽  
Sex Identification ◽  
Molecular Sexing ◽  
Tyto Alba ◽  
Breeding Programs ◽  
Barn Owls ◽  
Captive Breeding Programs

Abstract Sexing of barn owls, Tyto alba javanica, using morphological traits has not been accurate enough due to ambiguous sexual dimorphism between sexes. This has been one of the major problems for the management of barn owls worldwide, especially for translocation and captive-breeding programs. In order to increase the success rate of sexing the barn owl, we compared the results of a molecular sexing method to six morphological traits for sexing the owls: the shape and colour of the facial disc, the colour of the throat area, the tail plumage, the colour of their tarsus, the back plumage, and the frequency of spotting on the chest and underside of the wings. The result of our comparison showed that sex identification using morphological traits had an accuracy of only 72.7%. Three of our samples were identified as females using morphological traits, but molecular sexing determined that these samples were males. We also used our results to determine the best morphological traits for sexing barn owls, and concluded that the best traits for morphological sexing are the frequency of spotting on the chest and underparts of barn owls (accuracy of 81.8%), as well as colour of the owls’ facial disc and throat area (accuracy of 63.6%).

scholarly journals Contamination by neonicotinoid insecticides in barn owls (Tyto alba) and Alpine swifts (Tachymarptis melba)

2021 ◽  
Vol 785 ◽  
pp. 147403
Author(s):  
Ségolène Humann-Guilleminot ◽  
Shirley Laurent ◽  
Pierre Bize ◽  
Alexandre Roulin ◽  
Gaétan Glauser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tyto Alba ◽  
Neonicotinoid Insecticides ◽  
Barn Owls

scholarly journals Nidicolous beetle species richness is driven by Barn Owl’s nests occupancy and landscape structure

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivien Cosandey ◽  
Robin Séchaud ◽  
Paul Béziers ◽  
Yannick Chittaro ◽  
Andreas Sanchez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Landscape Structure ◽  
Barn Owl ◽  
Arthropod Community ◽  
Tyto Alba ◽  
Nest Material ◽  
Crop Fields ◽  
Nest Boxes ◽  
Bird Droppings ◽  
Barn Owls

AbstractBird nests are specialized habitats because of their particular composition including nest detritus and bird droppings. In consequence, they attract a specialized arthropod community considered as nidicolous, which includes species only found in bird nests (strictly nidicolous) or sometimes found in bird nests (facultatively nidicolous). Because the factors influencing the entomofauna in bird nests are poorly understood, in autumn 2019, we collected nest material in 86 Barn Owl (Tyto alba) nest boxes. We investigated whether the invertebrate species richness was related to Barn Owl nest box occupancy, the density of available nest boxes and the landscape structure. We found 3,321 nidicolous beetle specimens belonging to 24 species. Species richness of strictly nidicolous beetles was 2.7 times higher in nest boxes occupied by a family of Barn Owls the previous spring compared to unoccupied nest boxes. It was also higher in sites that were more often occupied by Barn Owls in the five previous years and in areas surrounded by a higher proportion of crop fields. For facultatively nidicolous beetles, the density of Barn Owl nest boxes enhanced the species richness. In conclusion, our study suggests that the strictly nidicolous beetles benefit from occupied nest boxes of Barn Owls, whereas facultatively nidicolous beetles look for nest boxes independently of whether Barn Owls occupy them. Our study highlights the importance of bird nests for a suite of invertebrates.

Diet of Barn Owls (Tyto alba) in Northern Belize

2009 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven G. Platt ◽  
Thomas R. Rainwater ◽  
Daniel J. Leavitt ◽  
Stanlee M. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Tyto Alba ◽  
Barn Owls

scholarly journals Diet of rural breeding Barn Owls Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769) in Madurai, southern India

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 6204-6213
Author(s):  
A. Mohamed Samsoor Ali ◽  
R. Santhanakrishnan
Keyword(s):  
Southern India ◽  
Tyto Alba ◽  
Barn Owls

scholarly journals Communally breeding female Barn Owls Tyto alba are not related and do not invest similarly in the communal family

Bird Study ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 570-573
Author(s):  
Robin Séchaud ◽  
Ana Paula Machado ◽  
Kim Schalcher ◽  
Céline Simon ◽  
Alexandre Roulin
Keyword(s):  
Tyto Alba ◽  
Breeding Female ◽  
Barn Owls

scholarly journals Developmental Changes Underlying the Formation of the Specialized Time Coding Circuits in Barn Owls (Tyto alba)

2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (17) ◽  
pp. 7671-7679 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Fabiana Kubke ◽  
Dino P. Massoglia ◽  
Catherine E. Carr
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Tyto Alba ◽  
Barn Owls ◽  
Time Coding

scholarly journals Self-motion trajectories can facilitate orientation-based figure-ground segregation

2020 ◽  
Vol 123 (3) ◽  
pp. 912-926
Author(s):  
Arkadeb Dutta ◽  
Tidhar Lev-Ari ◽  
Ouriel Barzilay ◽  
Rotem Mairon ◽  
Alon Wolf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Visual Outcome ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Head Movements ◽  
Essential Property ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Tyto Alba ◽  
Dominant Orientation ◽  
Barn Owls ◽  
Detection Of Objects

Segregation of objects from the background is a basic and essential property of the visual system. We studied the neural detection of objects defined by orientation difference from background in barn owls ( Tyto alba). We presented wide-field displays of densely packed stripes with a dominant orientation. Visual objects were created by orienting a circular patch differently from the background. In head-fixed conditions, neurons in both tecto- and thalamofugal visual pathways (optic tectum and visual Wulst) were weakly responsive to these objects in their receptive fields. However, notably, in freely viewing conditions, barn owls occasionally perform peculiar side-to-side head motions (peering) when scanning the environment. In the second part of the study we thus recorded the neural response from head-fixed owls while the visual displays replicated the peering conditions; i.e., the displays (objects and backgrounds) were shifted along trajectories that induced a retinal motion identical to sampled peering motions during viewing of a static object. These conditions induced dramatic neural responses to the objects, in the very same neurons that where unresponsive to the objects in static displays. By reverting to circular motions of the display, we show that the pattern of the neural response is mostly shaped by the orientation of the background relative to motion and not the orientation of the object. Thus our findings provide evidence that peering and/or other self-motions can facilitate orientation-based figure-ground segregation through interaction with inhibition from the surround. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Animals frequently move their sensory organs and thereby create motion cues that can enhance object segregation from background. We address a special example of such active sensing, in barn owls. When scanning the environment, barn owls occasionally perform small-amplitude side-to-side head movements called peering. We show that the visual outcome of such peering movements elicit neural detection of objects that are rotated from the dominant orientation of the background scene and which are otherwise mostly undetected. These results suggest a novel role for self-motions in sensing objects that break the regular orientation of elements in the scene.

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