Riet Vell Barn Owl Nest - Ebro Delta, Catalonia, Spain

Inside a wooden nest box at Riet Vell Reserve, in Catalonia’s Ebro Delta (Delta de l’Ebre), this camera watches wild barn owls roost by day, bring in prey after dark and raise their downy young.

The box went up in 2003 to bring barn owls back, and they have nested here ever since, though kestrels sometimes fight them for it. The barn owl was named Spain’s Bird of the Year in 2018 because its numbers were falling.

The reserve lies on an old bed of the Ebro River, where a 133-acre (54-hectare) organic rice farm wraps around a 17-acre (7-hectare) freshwater lagoon and reed bed, drawing more than 6,000 visitors each year.

Did You Know? The soft feathers that let barn owls fly silently are not very waterproof, so the owls usually avoid hunting in heavy rain.

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