{"id":66498,"date":"2026-08-06T13:13:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T13:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/66498\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T13:13:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T13:13:36","slug":"barn-owl-baby-boom-welcomed-in-rural-wa-following-mouse-plague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/66498\/","title":{"rendered":"Barn owl baby boom welcomed in rural WA following mouse plague"},"content":{"rendered":"

Farmers and wildlife groups have reported an increase in barn owl sightings in Western Australia’s Midwest and Wheatbelt regions.<\/p>\n

Experts suspect the area’s recent mouse plague has caused a spike in owls, which are fledging at this time of the year.<\/p>\n

Barn owl boom<\/p>\n

Chapman Valley hobby farmer Melanie Pugh discovered seven baby barn owl chicks inside a grain silo on her property last month.<\/p>\n

\"Grainy<\/p>\n

A Howatharra hobby farmer discovered young barn owls inside a silo in July.\u00a0 (Supplied: Melanie Pugh)<\/p>\n

Ms Pugh said the baby birds were fed by their parent for a few weeks before they fledged one by one.<\/p>\n

“I did a bit of research about owls, because I’d heard that it’s rare to have big clutches,” Ms Pugh said.<\/p>\n

“Apparently seven is extremely rare unless the food is plentiful.”<\/p>\n

Ms Pugh said the presence of the owls coincided with a notable drop in mice on the property, which had been inundated amid a plague<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The farmer had been trapping about 150 mice each day in May, which reduced to about 10 mice each day by late July.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

The presence of barn owls coincided with a notable drop in mice at a Midwest property.\u00a0 (Supplied: Melanie Pugh)<\/p>\n

“In my research, it said the mother owl has to feed each chick five mice a night, plus herself, for 10 weeks,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s nice to have owls, because they’re rare and they’re beautiful.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, wildlife group Carnaby’s Crusaders has reported an “explosion” of barn owls breeding in artificial hollows near Moora, in WA’s Wheatbelt.<\/p>\n

Dean Arthurell said four clutches were recorded on a recent visit, each with three to five eggs or nestlings, which indicated an abundance of food.<\/p>\n

\"Taken<\/p>\n

Barn owls were discovered breeding and hatching in artificial hollows near Moora, in WA’s Wheatbelt. (Supplied: Dean Arthurell)<\/p>\n

“There’s a dramatic increase in food resources, so the barn owls are really making the most of it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They are finding habitat in proximity to said food source, being the increase in rodents that we’re seeing through the wheatbelt.”<\/p>\n

The nesting boxes had been installed to assist endangered Carnaby’s cockatoos, but Mr Arthurell said the barn owls were welcome visitors.<\/p>\n

“The owls are well and truly through their breeding process, so we hope for the most part that these guys will largely be done by the time that Carnaby’s are ready to investigate and lay,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Left:<\/p>\n

Barn owls eggs were discovered in artificial bird boxes in the Wheatbelt.\u00a0 (Supplied: Dean Arthurell)<\/p>\n

Barn owls are the most widespread terrestrial bird, occurring on every continent except Antarctica.<\/p>\n

They are known to experience booms and busts in population depending on food availability.<\/p>\n

The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions said it did not have any programs that record barn owl numbers and was not aware of any recent increase in activity.<\/p>\n

However, several more wildlife groups in the Midwest and Wheatbelt said increasing numbers of barn owls were being brought to them and spotted in the environment, which they linked to the mouse plague.<\/p>\n

Morawa’s worst-ever mouse plague leaves streets covered in mice<\/a><\/p>\n

A farming town in Western Australia is battling an unprecedented mouse plague that is damaging crops and contaminating homes and businesses, while raising serious health and economic concerns in the community.<\/p>\n

“When there’s a huge smorgasbord of food, you’re going to find that these birds of prey are going to have two clutches of chicks that year, because they have the food out there,” wildlife carer Michelle Jones said.<\/p>\n

Bait-use falling<\/p>\n

Ms Jones said a drop in the use of an owl-killing rodenticide in recent years may also have contributed to the apparent surge in owl numbers.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A barn owl has made itself at home in Walkaway, Geraldton.\u00a0 (Supplied: Katie Anne Thoars)<\/p>\n

Ms Jones said following an awareness campaign by advocates, large portions of the community had switched out deadly second-generation anticoagulant poisons for owl-safe mice baits and traps.<\/p>\n

“Not many chicks came through in 2024,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Now we’ve had this huge turnaround with people using safer options.”<\/p>\n

However, raptor carer Janelle Ende warned the barn owl boom would be followed by intense competition for food and habitat.<\/p>\n

Ms Ende, who runs wildlife rehabilitation organisation Just Raptors, said she expected a rise in starving and displaced juveniles, which would likely end up in the wrong place or being harassed by other bird species.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Raptor rehabilitator Janelle Ende has three barn owls in her care, and expects more to come.\u00a0 (Supplied: Janelle Ende)<\/p>\n

She said mice had stopped breeding as temperatures dropped during winter and numbers would continue to decline.<\/p>\n

“You always see this after a mouse plague. You get birds handed in [to wildlife rehabilitators],” Ms Ende said.<\/p>\n

She said anyone who sees a barn owl in the wrong place should not disturb it and alert a local wildlife carer who can assess it.<\/p>\n

She said anyone wanting to encourage owls to their property can install a home-made owl box.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Farmers and wildlife groups have reported an increase in barn owl sightings in Western Australia’s Midwest and Wheatbelt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,83485,83482,38879,83484,83486,83483,3425,8734,464,14957,83487],"class_list":["post-66498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-barn-owl-population","tag-barn-owls","tag-dbca","tag-grain-silos","tag-just-raptors","tag-morewa","tag-mouse-plague","tag-rodenticide","tag-wa-news","tag-wheatbelt","tag-wildlife-carers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}