Our population of owls

Our study zone stretches from Morges to Morat, in Switzerland. There are roughly 400 artificial nestboxes installed in this region. This allows the Barn Owls to find nesting sites.



Since the 1980s, we have been monitoring changes in the Barn Owl population in our study zone, a population that has only continued to grow. Here below you can see the total number of clutches per year, as well as the total number of fledged nestlings, meaning the owlets who survived to the age of leaving the nest. Note that each year new artificial nestboxes are installed, thus increasing the number of clutches we are able to monitor.



Barn Owls are not a migratory species. They usually stay close to their place of birth. However, we do still find some birds more or less far away from their home. Below, discover where certain owls went after leaving their original village. Click here to see a full-screen map.


Note: the coordinates of the capture/release are deliberately slightly inexact so we do not reveal the precise location of the nestboxes.