The horror house screech that had a cute ending: Video of baby barn owls found in bedroom fireplace

When this Yorke Peninsula woman heard shrieking noises coming from her fireplace she moved out of her bedroom – but it was her cute find that has inspired her. Watch the video.

Alford artist Jenny Schneider got more of a hoot than a fright when she discovered that the strange, shrieking noises coming from her bedroom fireplace were being made by five baby barn owls.

“I started to hear noises in the chimney,” Ms Schneider said.

“It was like frickin’ aliens … like no noise you’ve ever heard before in your life. It was just this horrendous screech.”

She told her partner that she thought it might be baby birds, and he suggested they might have nested at the top of the chimney.

Jenny Schneider discovered the strange, shrieking noises coming from her bedroom fireplace were being made by these five baby barn owls. Picture: Supplied

The mother barn owl escaped Jenny’s chimney and perched itself atop the shower screen in her bathroom. Picture: Supplied

“But over time it just got louder and louder and louder … I moved out of the bedroom because the noise coming out of there at night was so loud.”

One day last October Ms Schneider, 57, and some girlfriends decided to look inside the fireplace and video what they found.

Alford resident Jenny Schneider.

One of Jenny Schneider’s owl paintings, inspired by the owlets in her bedroom fireplace.

The mother owl had apparently been flying down the chimney of the old house, which is being renovated, to feed her young at night.

“When they squawked the most was when she was feeding them – you didn’t hear them at all during the day.”

The owlets eventually moved on and the chimney has been covered over, but soon Ms Schneider heard new scratching sounds on the house’s pressed tin ceilings.

Jenny said she was inspired to paint again by the baby barn owls.

Another of Jenny Schneider’s owl paintings.

“I thought it might have been possums – and then the screeching started again. They’ve laid more in the roof … so there’s babies in there now and the mother feeds them through the chicken wire.”

Mrs Schneider said her daughter had renamed the small town of Alford, on northern Yorke Peninsula, as “Owlford”.

She recently resumed her hobby of painting and her main subject is – you guessed it – owls.

One of her works adorns the fireplace where the owlets were found, while she has been selling her other paintings at the Alford Makers Market.

“Don’t get me wrong – they are beautiful birds, but the noise is just horrendous. It’s a love-hate relationship.”