page_title: Barn owl
section_title: Taxonomy and etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Barn owl / Taxonomy and etymology
caption_attribution_description: Tyto alba Deutsch: Schleiereule English: Common Barn Owl. Captive, Lower Brockhampton falconry display, England.
context_page_description: The barn owl is the most widely distributed species of owl in the world and one of the most widespread of all species of birds. 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. The barn owl is found almost everywhere in the world except for the polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himalayas, most of Indonesia, and some Pacific islands.
  Phylogenetic evidence shows that there are at least three major lineages of barn owl, one in Europe, western Asia and Africa, one in southeastern Asia and Australasia, and one in the Americas, and some highly divergent taxa on islands. Accordingly, some authorities split the group into the western barn owl for the group in Europe, western Asia and Africa, the eastern barn owl for the group in southeastern Asia and Australasia, and the American barn owl for the group in the Americas. Some taxonomic authorities further split the group, recognising up to five species, and further research needs to be done to clarify the position.
context_section_description: The barn owl was one of several species of bird first described in 1769 by the Tyrolean physician and naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in his  Anni Historico-Naturales. He gave it the scientific name Strix alba.  As more species of owl were described, the genus name Strix came to be used solely for the wood owls in the typical owl family Strigidae, and the barn owl became Tyto alba in the barn owl family Tytonidae. The name literally means "white owl", from the onomatopoeic Ancient Greek tyto (τυτώ) for an owl – compare English "hooter" – and Latin alba, "white". The bird is known by many common names which refer to its appearance, call, habitat, or its eerie, silent flight: white owl, silver owl, demon owl, ghost owl, death owl, night owl, rat owl, church owl, cave owl, stone owl, monkey-faced owl, hissing owl, hobgoblin or hobby owl, dobby owl, white-breasted owl, golden owl, screech owl, straw owl, barnyard owl, and delicate owl. "Golden owl" might also refer to the related golden masked owl (T. aurantia). "Hissing owl" and, particularly in the U.K. and in India, "screech owl", refers to the piercing calls of these birds. The latter name is also applied to a different group of birds, the screech-owls in the genus Megascops.
  The ashy-faced owl (T. glaucops) was for some time included in T. alba, and by some authors its populations from the Lesser Antilles still are. Based on DNA evidence, König, Weick & Becking (2009) recognised the American barn owl (T. furcata) and the Curaçao barn owl (T. bargei) as separate species. They also proposed that T. a. delicatula should be split off as a separate species, to be known as the eastern barn owl, which would include the subspecies T. d. delicatula, T. d. sumbaensis, T. d. meeki, T. d. crassirostris and T. d. interposita. However, the International Ornithological Committee has doubts about this and states that the split of Tyto delicatula from T. alba "may need to be revisited". Some island subspecies are occasionally treated as distinct species, a move which should await further research into barn owl phylogeography. According to Bruce in Handbook of Birds of the World Volume 5: Barn-owls to Hummingbirds, "a review of the whole group [is] long overdue". Molecular analysis of mitochondrial DNA shows a separation of the species into two clades, an Old World alba and a New World furcata, but this study did not include T. a. delicatula, which the authors seem to have accepted as a separate species. A high amount of genetic variation was also found between the Indonesian T. a. stertens and other members of the alba clade, leading to the separation of stertens into Tyto javanica.
  The barn owl has a wider distribution than any other species of owl. Many subspecies have been proposed over the years, but several are generally considered to be intergrades between more distinct populations. Twenty to thirty are usually recognized, varying mainly in body proportions, size, and colour. Island forms are mostly smaller than mainland ones, and those inhabiting forests have darker plumage and shorter wings than those occurring in open grasslands. Barn owls range in colour from the almost beige-and-white nominate subspecies alba, erlangeri, and niveicauda, to the nearly black-and-brown contempta.
  In Handbook of Birds of the World Volume 5: Barn-owls to Hummingbirds, the following subspecies are listed:
caption: Light-coloured adult
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