Long Energy Banner

THROUGH THE WOODS: Eastern screech-owl

0
Share

By NANCY JANE KERN

OUR EASTERN SCREECH-0WL is an adorable little bird, about 7-10” long, and easy to overlook. I was driving past a frozen marsh a few years ago and saw a wood duck nest box on a post with what looked like a piece of rag stuffed in the opening. After turning around and taking a better look, it turned out to be a gray phase screech-owl asleep in the sun. It looked so happy and content and possibly digesting a night’s catch of mice. The yellow beak is just left of center in the photo and the eyes are dark slits. They have almost perfect camouflage to imitate weathered wood and tree bark and are a common bird, although rarely seen. They are our area’s only small owl with ear tufts and have beautiful yellow eyes.

Screech owl, rough-legged/ Photo by Nancy Jane Kern

They seek out cavities and holes to nest in and for shelter and are not bothered by human activity. Shelter is necessary, and so is a source of food such as small rodents and birds, amphibians, and insects. The two color phases of the eastern screech-owl, are a rusty “red” phase, or a more common “gray” phase. They sleep during the day and wake up at dusk to feed through the night and then go back to bed at dawn. Like other owls they swallow, then squeeze to digest their prey and later cough up a pellet of indigestible material such as bones, fur, and feathers. They also produce repugnant liquid feces and will defecate as a defense behavior making them difficult to handle. When tamed they can overcome this habit, and rehabilitated screech-owls that can’t be released back into the wild are often used for demonstrations and school programs.

Screech-owls have very distinctive calls that are easy to imitate with some practice and are easy to recognize. The first is a descending “whinny” and the other is a quieter, breathy, rapid call on one note. This is so soft it can be difficult to hear. During one memorable outing, several birders went to the Alan Devoe Bird Club’s Wilson M. Powell Wildlife Sanctuary in Old Chatham to call in an evening screech-owl. We stood by the edge of Reilly Pond and watched several likely owl perches as the late Kate Dunham attempted to use her new tape recorder to play the call of the eastern screech-owl. Somehow the recorder was turned to high volume and let out the mother of all gigantic screech-owl calls. Kate fell back as she tossed the recorder into the air which narrowly missed the pond, and we all went into shock. Upon recovery, we sat on the ground and laughed so hard we cried. I will never forget that night. As for the poor owls, they were not seen or heard for the rest of the summer. They are likely passing that story down to generations of offspring. Birding can be educational and fun for us in many unexpected ways.

For more information and to listen to the screech-owls, go to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology website allaboutbirds.org

Related Posts