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Northern Hawk Owl

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Conservation
Scientific name: Surnia ulula
Family name: Strigidae

Are they endangered? They are not endangered worldwide.  (IUCN Red List Least concern)   

What are their past/present problems?  The Northern Hawk Owl’s problem is that other birds steal their eggs.  When this happens, it means that the other birds will eat the eggs and there will be no owlets.  This decreases the number of owls that are in the world.

What do they look like?  They have yellow eyes and beak, white face, and a white belly with brown tips on the feathers.  The back is opposite in coloring with brown feathers with white tips.  They have long tails and no ear tufts.

Northern Hawk Owl

How big are they?  These owls are from 14-17 inches long.    If they spread out their wings, they would be about 3 feet wide.

How many eggs do they lay?  The eggs are white and the Northern Hawk Owl lays from 3-10 of them once a year.  They hatch in a little less then a month.

How long do the fledglings stay in the nest?  Northern Hawk Owls like nests that crows, squirrels, or other hawks have left.  They like holes in trees, too. Young birds (fledglings) stay in the nest for a month.

When do they hunt?  They hunt during the day but sometimes at night
What do they eat?  They like to eat small mammals (like MICE) and birds.
Where do they live?  They live in Canada, United States, China, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Russian Federation, and more.

What kind of place do they like to live in?  They like to live in and around pine forests with bogs and open forests.

Interesting facts:
They won’t migrate unless they can’t find food. They will only go far enough to find it.
They are not nocturnal like most owls are

The mother Hawk Owl feeds her owlets a whole lot of food.  The babies get very round and have to get out of the nest early because there isn’t enough room.  They can’t fly that early, but the fat little babies climb the trees until they can fly.

Works Cited:

Alderfer, Jonathan.  Complete Birds of North America.  Washington, D.C.:  National Geographic, 2006.

Alsop, Fred.  Birds of North America.  New York:  DK Publishing, 2001.

Northern Hawk Owl.  4 Oct. 2007.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Hawk_Owl>.

Northern Hawk Owl.  4 Oct. 2007.  <http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Northern_Hawk_Owl_dtl.html>.

Surnia ulula.  15 Nov. 2007.  <http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/48562/all>.

“The owl that acts like a hawk.”  International Wildlife.  Nov 1992: p 20.

Traynor, Chris.  "Re: Picture donation."  Email to Club Web  8 Feb. 2008.

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Gross facts
These birds have GREAT hearing.  They can hear mice that are a foot underneath the snow!
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