Barn Owl Appeal

BirdWatch Ireland have been working to conserve Barn Owls in Ireland for the past 20 years. When we started this work, Barn Owl populations were not in a healthy state and their populations had experienced dramatic and ongoing declines. Thankfully, this has changed, and in recent years through our survey and monitoring work we have shown that Barn Owl populations are slowly recovering. Barn Owls have returned to parts of the country that they had been absent from for many decades and their numbers are increasing for the first time in over fifty years. While this is very encouraging, many of the challenges that Barn Owls face are still present and there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure the future of this iconic and beautiful bird.

We want to continue our conservation focus on Barn Owls to take advantage of the recent population increases and to ensure that the population continues to recover until its future is secured. We know that our conservation efforts to date have worked, and we are looking for your help to support us to continue and expand on these efforts for Barn Owls and biodiversity as a whole.

By providing support you will be helping us to make Barn Owls a more common sight in the Irish countryside. With your support we will:

• Ensure that important nest sites are recorded and protected.
• Implement improvements to existing nest sites to ensure they remain suitable and secure.
• Provide safe and secure nest sites in the form of nest boxes in suitable areas.
• Obtain specialised equipment which would enable efficient and safe monitoring of Barn Owl nests (thermal imager, nest camera equipment and safety equipment).
• Conduct research on the extent and impacts of secondary poisoning of Barn Owls from rodenticides to inform policy change.
• Advocate for improved rodent control practices to reduce the risks of rodenticide exposure to Barn Owls and other wildlife.
• Monitor the effectiveness of conservation measures (including the Barn Owl Action in ACRES) for Barn Owls and refine these measures, where needed.
• Conduct research on Barn Owl habitat and foraging requirements to inform land management and measures to benefit Barn Owls and other wildlife.
• Advocate for the implementation of mitigation measures on existing road networks to reduce the risks of road collisions in known mortality hotspots on major roads.

We are extremely grateful for any support you can give us, and we look forward to providing full updates on what we have achieved using your donation on a regular basis.