There are now fewer than 1,000 breeding pairs of barn owls in England, which should be home to as many as 4,000 pairs of the birds

Ornithologists say 2013 will be viewed as the worst year ever recorded for one of Britain's favourite farmland birds.
They fear that there are now fewer than 1,000 breeding pairs of barn owls (Tyto alba) in England, the population of the protected bird declining by more than three-quarters over the last four years. In a typical year, conservationists estimate, Britain should be home to as many as 4,000 pairs of the birds. The birds were a common sight on farmland in Britain a century ago, but numbers had declined by 70% by the early 1980s, according to some reports. Over this summer, the trust warned that the owl was facing a "catastrophe" and now, following an end-of-year assessment, the true scale of the birds' plight has been revealed. "They have gone from scarce to rare," said David Ramsden, head of conservation at the Barn Owl Trust. "The scale of the decline is not normal." This year, occupancy of nest sites has been between 5% and 15% of previous levels, and for large parts of the country the figure has been even lower.

Source:
The Guardian,14 December 2013
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/14/barn-owls-threatened…