Barn owl a rare, exciting sight at Kalamazoo Nature Center, CEO says

Kalamazoo Nature Center barn owl spotting

Nathan Smallwood, Kalamazoo Nature Center president and CEO, spotted a barn owl on the nature center's campus Thursday, April 25.Courtesy of Scott Terry

COOPER TOWNSHIP, MI -- The sighting of a barn owl on the campus of the Kalamazoo Nature Center was a welcome surprise to the center’s new leader.

The bird was first spotted by President and CEO Nathan Smallwood after he inadvertently flushed the owl from a daytime roost, according to a Kalamazoo Nature Center news release. After the barn owl fled, Smallwood searched for hours before a small songbird’s alarm helped him locate the evasive bird.

“What a way to round up my first year at KNC,” Smallwood, an avid birder, said of the owl sighting.

Smallwood was selected last year to serve as the Kalamazoo Nature Center’s third director since the organization’s founding in 1960.

There have only been 13 confirmed barn owl sightings in Michigan in the last 35 years, and none in Kalamazoo County, according to the Michigan Bird Records Committee.

"This exciting discovery gives us pride in the extensive, long-term work KNC has done to protect vital wildlife habitats, and gives us great hope for the future,” Smallwood said.

Barn owls can be identified by their distinct white heart-shaped face and black eyes. While they can be found on every continent but Antarctica, populations have sharply dwindled, especially in the Midwest, due to agricultural practices and loss of habitat, according to the news release from the Kalamazoo Nature Center.

The barn owl was seen on the nature center’s campus by several others in the days following the first sighting, according to the release. It was last seen on Saturday, April 27.

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