OWLS: NOCTURNAL NEIGHBORS
Lynnanne Fager
Photography by Ben Shadley
November/December 2007
Have you ever spent the night around a campfire at one of our state parks, reservoirs or forests, heard a noise and wondered what it was? Did your breath stop and your ears perk up in hopes of hearing the sound again? The woods come alive at night, sometimes with the calls of owls.
Different types of owls have different voices, or calls. Some calls are soothing, like the great horned owl’s soft, low and steady hoot. Other calls can be scary, like the scream of the Eastern screech owl.
Some calls are simply entertaining. One favorite of this variety is the noise of the barred owl. This character’s call seems to ask “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?”
This round-headed, brown-eyed owl gets its name from the brown, streaked, bar like markings on its upper chest and neck. The feather color, or plumage, allows it to blend, or camouflage, with the color of the bark on trees, which makes it difficult to find.
One sure way of knowing an owl has been in an area is the presence of owl pellets beneath the bird’s favorite roosting tree. Owls are carnivorous, meaning they only eat meat. Barred owls love mice, but they also eat reptiles, amphibians, spiders and some songbirds. They’ve even been known to eat smaller owls.
But the owl can’t digest anything but the flesh and soft parts of the animal. So what happens to the other parts of the animal?
The owl eats the entire animal, but only the soft tissue is allowed to continue to the digestive tract. The remainder, the pieces of fur and bone, is stored in the stomach until all the parts are rolled into a tight, compressed oval—similar to what a trash compacter does. Once processed, the pellet is regurgitated, or coughed up.
These pellets teach us a lot about owls; scientists collect and dismantle them to find out what owls eat.
In order to locate a meal, owls use their superb hearing and eyesight. If you ever spot an owl and see it turning its head away from you, it’s not ignoring you; he or she couldn’t be more aware of your presence. Owls will turn their head with an ear toward a sound to determine the exact distance of you, the intruder. The sound they hear establishes whether a potential meal is moving in the owl’s direction.
Owls have unique feathers that are designed with frayed ends, allowing silent flight. With this type of feather, they are able to fly swiftly, yet quietly, to capture their prey without alarming it.
While owls are fun to listen to and watch, keep in mind that they are powerful birds of prey. Always watch owls from a distance and never approach a nesting owl. A safe way to get to know these birds is through their nighttime calls. Contact your nearest State Park or Reservoir interpretive center to see when its next “owl prowl” is scheduled.
Lynnanne Fager is an interpretive naturalist for Upper Wabash Reservoirs.
A barred owl in Scott County. This birds's call seems to ask, "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?" Listen here: http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/infocenter.html#Strigidae