Yes and yes; although they prefer small mammals, they also enjoy fish, frogs, turtles, snakes, and crustaceans.

For me, there are so many mixed feelings when things like this happen. Its the way nature is supposed to work. Frogs, fish, and barred owls are all beautiful creatures. But they are on different levels of the food chain, unfortunately.
How about trying one of those motion-detector sprayers? How about string criss-crossed across your pond? (I'm not sure how big your pond is). Do you have a dog you could leave out over night, to hopefully scare the owl off? Unfortunately, it knows a place to dine now.
I had one of these dilemmas in my very small pond..........snakes versus frogs/toads, and I decided to just let nature take its course. But I know koi owners feel a big different, and I understand. Good luck finding a solution that lets everything live.

P.S. I haven't seen my snake around recently either.....and we have barred owls. The thought makes me sad.......but that's the way it is. :(
That's the reason my chicken run is built like a Fort Knox.

Thank you for all of your suggestions...so far we haven't lost a fish but I would say the owl has been dining on our frogs as we haven't seen any for weeks. We are definitely going to look into the ways to keep the owl out of our pond (about 20x20) If we see or hear him again or notice a fish is missing we will start to take action...gotta love nature

A friend of the family lost all her goldfish to an owl. I don't which kind of owl but it had perched on the side of the kiddie pool that she had them in and caught them as the swam by. I didn't see the owl for myself.

Happy ponding,
Scott

Every time somebdoy sees an owl, hawk, crow or some other NON-fish eating bird then this MYTH gets started up again.
There is a 'fish owl', a 'fish crow' and an Osprey which is sometimes called the fish hawk. These birds as well as Kingfishers which look like big woodpeckers, herons, seagulls and a few other fishing type birds that you most likely will never see are fishers. There are even fish eagles.
But our common everyday ordinary hawks and owls are just smart hunters like every predator.
Where there is a water source there will be game. And that game is the animals that come to drink the water or live on the bank.
The birds may even drink the water themselves.

A coopers hawk used to perch on the side of the kiddie pool that we had in the back yard. Was he looking for fish to eat? Not hardly because the kiddie pool was for our ducks to swim in.
Was he after the ducks? They were too big for him.
But he would sit there perfectly still and a sparrow, starling or other tasty morsel would swoop in for a dip or a drink and they would be lunch.
Your fish are pretty much safer with the owl around because they take care of rats WHO WILL GO AFTER FISH.
But your frogs just look like a shiny rat to a hawk or owl.

No, the honeybees are there to eat the rats that eat the fish, I guess. Glenda

I have a small urban pond. Something ate all my goldfish and I thought it was a rat. I replaced the gold fish and last night at dusk watched as a barred owl slowly moved closer to the pond, and finally into the pond trying to eat the replacements. I like owls and these are just feeder goldfish, $0.10 each, so that's fine with me but if I had koi I'd try the wires over the water.

I don't think its a myth or anyways unusual for owls to eat fish. If you look up barred owls in the encyclopedia it says they eat fish.

Just to jump in here ...

According to the Birds or North America (from the Cornell lab or ornithology and the american Ornithologists union)...

The barred owl's food habits are
"Considered a seminocturnal to nocturnal hunter, although diurnal hunting observed. Hunts in a sit-and-wait fashion from an elevated perch scanning area for prey. Acute vision and hearing apparently used to locate prey. Takats (1996) observed a female drop from a perch to capture a vole on the forest floor, as well as make several passes in attempt to capture a red squirrel (Tamiasciuris hudsonicus) in a tree during the day. Known to perch over water and drop to capture fish (Smith et al. 1983). Observed wading in shallow water to capture fish and crayfish (M. Gibson pers. comm.). Reported to hunt from the ground, running and pouncing on prey such as amphibians (Dunstan and Sample 1972, Elderkin 1987, KMM). In northern regions, likely plunges beneath the snow to capture small mammals in winter (Nero 1993). Prey is either swallowed whole (in the case of smaller items) or the head is consumed first, then body (larger prey). Pellets with skull of a Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) found on or near remainder of grouse carcass, indicating that the owl first consumed the head and later returned to feed, first regurgitating a pellet (KMM). Hunting activity highest immediately following sunset (Elderkin 1987)."

And the food habits of the Coopers hawk ....

"DIET
Major food items

See Table 2. Relative importance of birds vs mammals varies across regions and among habitat types. Almost all data from breeding season, mostly from midwestern and southwestern U.S. More information needed from nonbreeding seasons, specific habitats, and additional geographic areas. Live animals, typically sub-adult birds and mammals of medium size (Reynolds 1989, Bielefeldt et al. 1992), especially American Robin (Turdus migratorius), Jays (Cyanocitta, Aphelocoma), Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus), European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), Doves (Zenaida and Columbina spp. Â Estes and Mannan 2003) and chipmunks (Tamias, Eutamias).

Other avian prey include: various poultry, Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus), Bobwhite Quail (Colinus virginianus), Least Bittern (Ixobrychus exilis), American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos), Rock Pigeon, various blackbirds (Agelaius, Quiscalus, Molothrus, Sturnella), House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), and Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis). Other mammalian prey include: hares (Lepus), gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), deer mice (Peromyscus), tree squirrels (Sciurus, Tamiasciurus), ground squirrels (Ammospermophilus, Spermophilus), and bats (Tadarida). Other prey groups include reptiles, amphibians, insects, and fish (Rosenfield 1988)."