Managing a High-Density Barn Owl Area: The Osona Experience of 30 Years of Species Conservation

Jordi Baucells is a biologist, agricultural technical engineer, and bird ringer since the mid-1980s, and he is currently the president of the ICO (Catalan Institute of Ornithology).

In this talk, he will present a scientific analysis of the monitoring of a large barn owl population in Osona after thirty years of monitoring and safeguarding nests and territories by local naturalists, farmers, and forest landowners.

Thanks to the high density of barn owls, it has been possible to detect phenomena such as cooperative breeding and deserting females, among other unusual behaviors of the species.