Data for: Barn owls exert top-down effects on the abundance and behavior of rodent pests

we surveyed above-ground foraging rodents and monitored barn owl nest boxes at six winegrape vineyards in Napa Valley, California from February to July in 2023. We deployed chew block grids to determine the effect of barn owls on rodent abundance and used giving-up density (GUD) trays and camera traps to determine the effect of barn owls on rodent perceived predation risk and activity, respectively. We found that, over the range of hunting pressures observed (from nearly no owls to about 3 occupied boxes with 6 adults and 8 chicks within a 1-km radius), barn owls reduced rodent (predominately deer mouse, Peromyscus spp.) abundance by 38-52% and increased perceived predation risk by 16-38%. Results also suggest that vegetation cover favors the acoustically attuned barn owls over the visually oriented rodent pests.