the GlobeAcross the globe, people have reported encounters with things they can’t explain. Screaming spirits, winged beings, and glowing eyes in the night are just some of the things that have unnerved humans for centuries. Could all of these things be traced back to one living creature that is based in science and nature rather than the paranormal or demonic?

In Irish folklore exists a wailing ghost known as a banshee. Dressed all in white with a pale face and deep dark sunken eyes, banshees are female spirits that scream a ghastly blood curdling sound that serves as a warning that death is approaching. Some reports say that banshees fly around the home of someone doomed to die, screaming and shrieking, if one is seen, they will disappear into a cloud of fog or mist leaving no evidence that the ghoul was ever there. 

Throughout Irish, Scottish, and Welsh history banshees are mentioned and even in modern times, reports of screaming spirits still sometimes come in with a somewhat recent account occurring in June of 2014. So what explanation could possibly account for such a phenomenon? 

Meet the Barn Owl, a bird with an underside of white, a large heart shaped face, and deep dark eyes. True to their name, these birds spend their days in barns, old human habitations, thick trees, and brushy areas. They feed on small mammals and patrol open spaces under the cover of nightfall hunting for prey.

Nocturnal animals have always captured the imagination as they thrive in the darkness that served as a source of uncertainty and fear for our ancestors. It makes sense birds like owls could potentially be confused for some other sort of less natural winged creature. However, how could an albeit kind of cute, kind of creepy Barn owl possibly be responsible for the legend of the banshee? Well, first, Barn Owls live all across the world in nearly every continent. That puts them at the scene where the legend was first created. Second, take a listen to the noises the make.

The call, song, scream of the Barn Owl is one of the most shocking and ear piercing sounds of any nocturnal bird species and would certainly be alarming to hear in the middle of the night if didn’t know what it was.

So the Barn owl has the tools and lives in the right place to be responsible for the legend of the banshee, but how would people not realize it was an owl making these sounds and not an ancient harbinger of death?

There are a few possibilities to how the legend may have started. It’s likely that the first way it began was with people hearing the scream of a Barn Owl before someone died. Some people hypothesize that soldiers marching into war at night would hear the owls and obviously people would die soon after because of the ensuing battle. Another potential origin story is that people weren’t often up too late into the night back when the legends first began. There was no electricity, so when it was dark, people would go to bed, unless there was a reason to be up, such as someone who needed to be tended to because of illness. People awake in a home caring for an ill family member would hear the nocturnal Barn Owl, and shortly after, the sick family member would pass away, creating a correlation.

Human beings are always looking for meaning and reason. Over time, enough people probably had an experience like this , and maybe even in conjuncture with seeing a white, dark-eyed silhouette flying around outside, and believed it to be something supernatural. Of course there was no internet, no phone, and no social media, so there was no way to figure out what was actually going on in these situations, so people had to try and piece it together the best they could. What they came up with was a screaming spirit that comes to warn of death on the horizion.

Over the years other paranormal or cryptozoological reports have been blamed on owls as well, the Jersey Devil and mothman just to name a few. So what do you think? Was the Barn Owl responsible for reports of the notorious Banshee or is something else lurking in the hills of the UK. Let us know in the comments below. Also, if you want to learn more about nighttime bird noises, check one of these videos out and as always, thanks for watching, we’ll see you next time on Badgerland Birding.