American barn owls (Tyto furcata) provide valuable pest control services in agriculture, yet the role of individual variation in these processes remain poorly understood. This study examines how personality traits shape hunting behavior and rodent removal services provided by barn owls in vineyards of California’s Central Valley. We used a novel object test approach at nest boxes to assess individual boldness, and tracked movement with high-resolution GPS-accelerometer tags. Owls showed consistent differences in reactions to novel stimuli, suggesting distinct personalities. Hidden-Markov models and step selection analyses revealed individual variation in foraging distance, search strategy, time activity budgets, and habitat use. Accelerometer and nest camera data documented prey deliveries and strike attempts across habitats. These behavioral differences influence the strength and spatial distribution of rodent predation, affecting delivery of ecosystem services across landscapes. By linking personality to foraging behavior and pest control, this work highlights how individual variation contributes to ecosystem function and informs wildlife-based pest management strategies. This study provides one of the first insights into barn owl personality using measures of neophobia, emphasizing the importance of incorporating behavioral traits into evaluations of avian ecosystem services.

Lauren Jackson is a graduate student at Cal Poly Humboldt researching barn owl personality and hunting behavior in agroecosystems. Her work examines how individual behavioral traits shape pest control dynamics and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. Lauren earned her B.Sc. from McGill University in 2023, where she studied seabird diet and physiology in the Gulf of Alaska. Lauren has contributed to a variety of other avian research projects across the US, and her interests center on connecting animal behavior to conservation and sustainable human-wildlife relationships.