"Barn-owls (family Tytonidae) are one of the two families of owls, the other being the true owls, Strigidae. They are medium to large owls with large heads and characteristic heart-shaped faces. They have long, strong legs with powerful talons. They also differ from Strigidae in structural details relating in particular to the sternum and feet.
...The barn owls are a wide ranging family, although they are absent from northern North America, Saharan Africa and large areas of Asia. They live in a wide range of habitats from deserts to forests, and from temperate latitudes to the tropics. The majority of the 16 living species of barn owls are poorly known. Some, like the red owl, have barely been seen or studied since their discovery, in contrast to the common barn owl, which is one of the best known owl species in the world. However, some sub-species of the common barn owl possibly deserve to be separate species, but are very poorly known.
Five species of barn-owl are threatened... The barn-owls are mostly nocturnal, and generally non-migratory, living in pairs or singly.
The barn-owls' main characteristic is the heart-shaped facial disc, formed by stiff feathers which serve to amplify and locate the source of sounds when hunting. Further adaptations in the wing feathers eliminate sound caused by flying, aiding both the hearing of the owl listening for hidden prey and keeping the prey unaware of the owl. Barn-owls overall are darker on the back than the front, usually an orange-brown colour, the front being a paler version of the back or mottled, although there is considerable variation even amongst species. ..."
~Wikipedia.org
