This week’s birds are eagerly awaited, I am sure, simply because owls draw bigger crowds (sometimes to their detriment) than pretty well any other birds. Everyone wants to see Owls. Whenever the nearby Arboretum organises a night-time “owl prowl” it is guaranteed to be sold out within days of announcement while visitors regularly ask where they can see these wonderful birds.
Warning:
Please note that Owls are especially susceptible to disturbance during the daylight hours and should be approached with caution and respect, and never too closely. Great Horned Owls are particularly territorial in the breeding season by the way, so you have been warned. For this reason it is not appropriate to share very specific details about where they are most likely to be encountered. Indeed, there is an unwritten agreement between the publishers of birding newsletters and blogs not to give information that would lead to people easily finding an owl, and sites such as eBird actively suppress localization details for these species.
What is an Owl?
Owls are predominantly nocturnal birds of prey belonging to the order Strigiformes. I imagine that anyone reading this will easily know when a bird that they are looking at is an owl within seconds of sighting it, but for they record they are characterized by:
A facial disc – a circular arrangement of stiff feathers that helps funnel sound to their ears, giving them exceptional hearing.
Large forward‑facing eyes – providing binocular vision and depth perception The eyes are fixed in the skull, meaning that owls must swivel their heads (up to about 270°) to look around. See the diagram below.
Silent flight – facilitated by specialized feather edges that break up turbulence, allowing them to glide almost silently and surprise prey.
Powerful talons and a hooked beak – used to capture and kill their prey
There are 200 or so owl species in the world living in diverse environments, from dense forests and deserts to tundra and urban areas. In my part of the world, at some time of the year, you might find seven species - Eastern Screech-Owl, Great Horned Owl, Snowy Owl, Barred Owl, Northern Saw-whet Owl, Long-eared Owl and Great Gray Owl. The location of Owls is often given away by loud assemblies of Crows who dislike their presence and will try to mob them - as has often been said, look for Crows and find Owls.
Snowy Owls, of course, are not forest or suburban birds and so will only be seen, if you are very lucky in winter when some of them, often juveniles, come south in search of food. They prefer the flat-lands south and west of Montreal and so they can be found here within about a half hour’s drive. One of the few owl species whose females are larger than males. Diurnal hunters seeking small mammal prey during daylight. Their breeding season is short and both parents sharing incubation duties. Juveniles fledge within just six weeks, an adaptation to the short Arctic summer.
Great Gray Owls are irruptive and only seen in very occasional years, though if they visit they may stay here for an extended period allowing good opportunities for watching. One or two have been seen locally this year but “you should have been here in 2005.” That year truly was the once in a lifetime opportunity to see this species. They are the largest owl species, up to 75 cm tall with a wingspan exceeding 1.3 m. Due to specialized feather edges that muffle turbulence their flight is silent. Native to the boreal forests they are to be found on territory in old growth woodlands with good canopy, where they perch high to spot prey such as voles, mice, and shrews. Their eyes face forward, providing exceptional binocular vision and depth perception, even for owls.
Great Horned Owls in particular seem not too worried about proximity to trails and on more than one occasion have nested and raised young within just a very few feet of people passing below them - fortunately for them they are exceptionally good at making their nests hard to see, being high in the tallest trees and well hidden in the leaves. The “ears” are not ears at all but help to break up their silhouette among trees. They possess incredibly powerful talons and can take prey ranging from insects and small rodents to animals as large as skunks, porcupines. Their hearing, like most owls, is aided by asymmetrically placed ear openings which enable them to pinpoint sounds in three dimensions and locate hidden prey beneath snow or foliage.
Long-eared Owls are supposedly strict night-hunters but this winter have been seen south of Montreal hunting in daylight. Look for them in places such as along the edges of forested areas hunting over open fields. They often nest in old stick nests built by birds such as crows. Exceptional auditory precision—due to the asymmetrical ear openings common to most owls allowing them to find prey hidden under snow or vegetation. Partially migratory, with northern populations moving southward in winter, while others remain resident year‑round. In some cases they form roosts with many birds gathering on tree branches at dusk before dispersing to hunt individually. Many features are similar to Great Horned Owls but they are smaller and lack the white “beard” of the GHOW.
Barred Owl is probably the most commonly seen of our Owls, sitting out the day tucked up in a spruce tree against the trunk, often very close to the trails. Again, the Arboretum is the best place to see these splendid birds. A few years ago I was leading a winter birding field trip in the Arboretum when we spotted a Barred Owl sitting on a branch maybe 20 feet above the trail. It knew well we were there but was not at all worried as it ripped its way into the body of a squirrel that it had caught for luncheon. These are the owls who produce the classic owls call every child knows - usually transliterated as “who cooks for you? who cooks for you all?” They often hunt during twilight hours rather than in deep night. Territorial and monogamous, typically nesting in large tree cavities. Originally from the eastern side of the continent they have expanded westward, occasionally overlapping with the similar‑looking Spotted Owl, in the west, leading to competition for habitat and prompting conservationists to monitor their range dynamics closely as they are replacing the more vulnerable Spotted Owls - something that is made worse by the loss of old forest habitat by logging in the west.
Northern Hawk Owl
The only true “hawk owl” native to North America, lives in boreal forests and sub‑arctic taiga from Alaska and Canada down into the northern Rocky Mountains and the upper Midwest of the United States. Its name is due to it looking rather more like a small hawk than a typical owl. They have long, pointed wings, and a distinctive facial disc edged with black “eyebrows.” Predominantly diurnal, hunting by soaring high over open woodland. Seasonal movements are irregular - some birds migrate short distances southward in harsh winters, while others remain resident if food remains abundant.
Eastern Screech Owl
These are really very small owls with a mottled gray‑brown plumage provides excellent camouflage among tree bark, allowing them to perch unnoticed while hunting - see the photograph below that I took a couple of summers ago in my neighbor’s garden. They are highly vocal, producing a distinctive, high‑pitched trill or “whinny” that carries long distances. Adaptable urban dwellers that will nest in tree cavities or man‑made nest boxes. They make a good living in parks, gardens, and backyards where insects, moths, and small rodents are plentiful. Unusually for owls they can take prey in flight.
Next week : Swifts, Martins & Swallows, Nightjars, Kingfishers & (why not) Hummingbirds
BONUS: Torrent Ducks … I enjoyed this short video, pretty sure that you will too.
I love owls! We have Long Eared Owls over here too, I was once shown a secret location for a couple of young Long Eared Owls. One winter a group of 14 or so Short Eared Owls spent a month or so not far from Edinburgh. And for a couple of winters, a Tawny Owl adopted a regular roost in a hole in a tree in a local woodland and became a popular celebrity for walkers in the area.
Very helpful to have details that distinguish the owls from one another. The sharper we can become in perception, the more we get to see: thanks for opening our eyes to the small details that make a big difference!