YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is asking anyone who sees a barn owl to report it.

  • Barn Owl
  • Barn Owl
  • Barn Owl
  • Barn Owl

Reports from the public are one of the primary ways the agency tracks the birds in Ohio, and these observances are a big help.

You can report a sighting online in an easy-to-fill-out form.

According to ODNR, barn owls are considered threatened in Ohio. Barn owls are very dependent on meadow voles as their primary prey; consequently, nest success varies with meadow vole production. When meadow vole production is down so are the numbers of barn owl chicks that survive.

According to ODNR, here are low occurrences of the birds in parts of NE Ohio.

Barn owl nests plummeted in 2003 and have risen steadily since then.