Owls (Wild Only)
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Beautiful creatures and full of character . This one and it's mate were busy all afternoon providing for their chicks.
Tawny Owl - Strix Aluco
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Tawny Owl - Strix Aluco
The tawny owl or brown owl (Strix aluco) is a stocky, medium-sized owl commonly found in woodlands across much of Eurasia. Its underparts are pale with dark streaks, and the upperparts are either brown or grey. Several of the eleven recognised subspecies have both variants. The nest is typically in a tree hole where it can protect its eggs and young against potential predators. This owl is non-migratory and highly territorial. Many young birds starve if they cannot find a vacant territory once parental care ceases.
This nocturnal bird of prey hunts mainly rodents, usually by dropping from a perch to seize its prey, which it swallows whole; in more urban areas its diet includes a higher proportion of birds. Vision and hearing adaptations and silent flight aid its night hunting. The tawny owl is capable of catching smaller owls, but is itself vulnerable to the eagle owl or northern goshawk.
Although many people believe this owl has exceptional night vision, its retina is no more sensitive than a human's and its asymmetrically placed ears are key to its hunting by giving it excellent directional hearing. Its nocturnal habits and eerie, easily imitated call, have led to a mythical association of the tawny owl with bad luck and death.
Population:
UK breeding:
50,000 pairs
The rich baritone hooting of the Barred Owl is a characteristic sound in southern swamps, where members of a pair often will call back and forth to each other. Although the bird is mostly active at night, it will also call and even hunt in the daytime. Only a little smaller than the Great Horned Owl, the Barred Owl is markedly less aggressive, and competition with its tough cousin may keep the Barred out of more open woods. One of the first things you will notice with the Barred Owl is that they appear to have no ears. They aren’t visible from the top of their head as they are with other species of owls. They are brownish in color as well as shades of gray.
The Barred Owl hunts by night or day, perhaps most at dawn and dusk. Seeks prey by watching from perch, also by flying low through forest; may hover before dropping to clutch prey in talons. The Barred Owl eats mostly, small mammals, rabbits, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates. They are known to wade in water to catch crayfish.
The belly feathers of some Barred Owls are pink. This coloring may be the result of eating a lot of crayfish.
I found this one in the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area in Osceola County, Florida.
This Barred Owl gave us a delightful experience during a visit to Brazos Bend State Park. We inadvertently flushed it from next to the water up into a low tree where he sat for quite some time while we took way too many photos.
Strix varia
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My first Hawk Owl of the 21/22 winter season. I believe that it caught prey down low as I arrived. Its bill is still bloody here as it looks for another vole.
Hurricane Harvey has not only disrupted people but wildlife as well. We are seeing fewer birds and small animals than we normally see. We went looking for Burrowing Owls in an area where we saw 9 in one day last year and this year we were very happy to find one. Hope he brings his friends with him next year as his food supplies get back to normal.
Thorhild County. Alberta.
Yesterday I posted a shot of a Barred Owl on a fence post that had a caterpillar on it. I sent the image to U of A Entomologist John Acorn for an explanation and identification. Several contacts have asked for an update. John went out and collected it today. Here is his reply:
"The caterpillar has been dead for some time, killed by parasites. There are multiple exit holes where parasites emerged from the host's body. Most of the hairs (setae) have worn off, so it is not easy to recognize, but I think it is probably Acronicta dactylica, the Fingered Dagger Moth."
Barn Owl (Tyto alba) in flight
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Eurasian pygmy owl, Glaucidium passerinum, varpuspöllö, Finland.
Not much birding activity lately but one recent highlight was this pygmy owl which I photographed from car window on a very dull day.
The barred owl (Strix varia), or northern barred owl, is a true owl native to eastern North America. Adults are large, and are brown to grey with barring on the chest. Barred owls have expanded their range to the west coast of the United States, where they are considered invasive. Mature forests are their preferred habitat, but they are also found in open woodland areas. Their diet consists mainly of small mammals, but they are also known to prey upon other small animals such as reptiles and amphibians. This was taken at the CRC.
A Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa) patiently listens for movement under the snow cover possibly identifying its next meal in the boreal woods north of Opal, Alberta, Canada.
23 November, 2017.
Slide # GWB_20171123_9806.CR2
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© Gerard W. Beyersbergen - All Rights Reserved Worldwide In Perpetuity - No Unauthorized Use.
Snowy Owl
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Some more Short-eared Owl shots. I suspect these MAY be recently fledged birds, especially the flying one as every feather looks sharp and new. There were 4, possibly 5 birds indicating that some of the youngsters have fledged.
These owls roost in the day, usually in pairs. When disturbed they may fly in bright sunshine although they choose to shelter within a dense grove of trees. They produce an eerie chuhua-aa call with a quaver in the second note. This call is an antiphonal duet of the male and female. The male calls one or two times followed by the female's shorter and less tremulous version. The calling is more frequent in November when the begin to breed. Most Nests are found from February to April. They also produce a single note hoot and a screech not unlike that of the barn owl. The nest is a tree hollow in which two to three white eggs are laid. They feed on palm squirrels, mice
The great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), also known as the tiger owl or the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an extremely adaptable bird with a vast range and is the most widely distributed true owl in the Americas. Its primary diet appears to be rabbits and hares, rats and mice and voles, although it freely hunts any animal it can overtake, primarily other rodents and small mammals, but also larger mid-sized mammals, various birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates.
I was very excited that we had an opportunity to see and photograph this Striped Owl during our trip to Costa Rica this month. I think it is such a pretty bird. What I was particularly surprised by was that this bird was out on a rainy night. In my past experience I have found it quite rare to see owls of any kind out in the rain. If you look closely you can actually see some of the water droplets on the owl’s head in this photo.
We will be doing this trip again next spring, if you think you might be interested more information is available here: www.texastargetbirds.com/group-photo-trips/2018-costa-ric...
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Pseudoscops clamator