A blog to share barn owl and other wildlife and general news about the Retreat and its environment.
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Magpies trying to steal prey from barn owl
26. May 2025, Wildlife
Other birds sometimes attack barn owls to try to steal their prey. Perhaps it is easier to do that than to catch prey themselves. Kestrels do that, sometimes successfully.
Here we see our nesting barn owl male mobbed by magpies as he returns to the nest box with a vole. He evaded them and dashed into the box to hand the prey to the female who needs food to feed to the four small owlets. For several minutes afterwards they both sounded warning hisses and the magpies went away and didn't return. But now the magpies know where they are so may make other attempts in future.
Watch the video on YouTube.
The male seems to have upped his game the last couple of days, and following the first hatching he has been bringing more prey to the nest box each night.
The female should not need to leave the box for hunting, which is important so that she can guard the eggs and young against intruders. (The stock doves have already visited again this morning, hoping to be able to take over the box for their nest).
She has been well fed overnight, and she still has at least five more voles lying on the floor of the box which she can eat herself and tear up to feed to the hatchling.
