The remarkable story of North America's most mysterious owl.
Few birds have inspired as much fascination as the barn owl. With its heart-shaped face, silent flight, and uncanny ability to thrive alongside humans, this remarkable predator has occupied a unique place in human imagination for thousands of years. In Wings in the Dark, naturalist and researcher Mark Browning offers the first comprehensive portrait of the North American barn owl, bringing together decades of field observations, conservation research, and original scientific studies to reveal the life of one of the continent's most intriguing birds.
Examining the owl's evolutionary history, extraordinary sensory abilities, breeding behavior, migrations, and conservation challenges, Browning introduces readers to a species that continually defies expectations. Drawing on his satellite-tracking research, he follows young owls across vast distances, uncovering surprising patterns of movement and survival. He also traces the bird's changing fortunes across North America, showing how agricultural practices, habitat loss, and conservation efforts have shaped populations over time. At the same time, Wings in the Dark tells a larger story about the relationship between wildlife and agriculture. Browning examines innovative programs in Malaysia, California, and elsewhere that use barn owls for natural rodent control, reducing reliance on poisons while benefiting farmers and ecosystems alike.
Rich with scientific discovery, memorable field experiences, and practical insight, Wings in the Dark celebrates this extraordinary bird and details a compelling account of how conservation and agriculture can work together. Birders, wildlife enthusiasts, conservationists, farmers, and anyone who delights in the natural world will find much to discover in Wings in the Dark.
From the Author:
Wings in the Dark is the first full length book on the North American Barn Owl, and it is the first to offer a comprehensive treatment of the new and innovative practice of attracting dense populations of barn owls to farms to control rodents. Aside from covering the evolution, taxonomy, and physiology of the barn owls, the book delves deeply into the breeding, hunting, and seasonal movements of barn owls and offers new information from two of my recent field studies: one that measured how a population of over 100 barn owls suppressed rodent numbers on a California vineyard for three years, and the other on the first long distance tracking of fledgling barn owls for one year in the Eastern United States.
The chapters on using barn owls for rodent control provide farmers and property owners practical knowledge on how to establish and maintain barn owl nest box programs, and chronicles the relatively recent history of using sophisticated nest box programs around the world, from the rice paddies and oil palms of Malaysia to the hayfields of Israel. The final chapter, on conservation, examines the development of techniques from those that did not work to those that have brought back state populations from the brink of extirpation to flourishing numbers that had not been seen in decades.
Available from Amazon.com [Affiliate Link].
