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In my backyard woods. Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana.
Shortly after I discovered that the pileated’s were incubating eggs and that they would exchange places on the eggs about every two hours, I began spending more time in my strategically placed lawn chairs awaiting nest exchanges with camera in hand. This was at the same time that the owlets were getting closer to leaving their nest and their mom was spending less time near them in the nest. Throughout most of the time during incubation and raising the youngsters, the daily activities of both the male and female owls were so discretely carried out that it was difficult to know what was going on and who was doing what. References say that incubation is done almost entirely by the female and that the male keeps her supplied with food during that time. On two or three occasions I saw an owl come to the nest tree at first or last light, and I presumed it was the male bringing food to the female.
After eggs hatch, references say, the male continues to bring most of the food especially early on when the female broods the owlets most of the time. Eventually the female will spend more time away from the nest and shares with hunting for food. The nest at my place was so high up and hidden from view that it was very difficult to know what was going on up there. At times, I was able to see the top of the head of the female. She apparently stayed with the youngsters most of the time, perhaps since it was an open-topped nest and crows came by every day to harass the owls.
The day I took this photo of the owl, I was sitting in one of the lawn chairs awaiting a pileated nest exchange. The chair was directly under the crown spread of the aged beech that held the owl nest. While sitting there, I heard a soft, high-pitched call that I concluded was one of the owls, and I remembered hearing that call in years past when the owls had young in our neighborhood. Young make a louder, raspy call when they want attention. This softer call is made by an adult, and I’m not sure what it means but I think it might be the female calling out to its mate that “I’m hungry and so are the kids. Please bring food.” In looking for the source of the call, I discovered the adult sitting directly above me about 35 feet up in the beech tree. It took me a while to find a spot where I could get a clear shot of the owl without branches in the way, but I finally found a good spot. The owl was totally unconcerned with me. As I stood looking at it and taking photos, it appeared to be gawking around looking for food much like it appears to be doing here.
Father owl, with eye injury? on 1 Aug.
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Shown here is the juvenile. The parants were at the tree top which was too high to have good angle.
I visited the same spot next day, all parants and chick were not there anymore.
Esp: Lechuza listada o Cárabo brasileño
Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar - São Luiz do Paraitinga - São Paulo - Brasil
Juvenile with mother owl.
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