DESCRIPTION OF THE BARRED OWL The Barred Owl is 16-23 inches long. The Barred Owl has a round head with dark eyes. The Barred Owl does not have ear tufts. The Barred Owl is a dark grayish brown above its barred whitish, in parts like across the neck and upper chest. The Barred Owl has vertical streaks across it belly.click here to see a picture Is like a frenzied monkey like squall. Their calls sound is a
VOICE OR SOUND
lot like “who cooks for you.”click here to hear their call
The Barred Owl lives around wooded areas with water around it, or it can live in swampy areas. It likes to live in wet wooded areas better because these areas are less likely to be disturbed by timber actives so they can roost in hollow trees. BARRED OWL HABITAT
Mice are the preferred food of the Barred Owl, but they will also eat reptiles, fish, and insects. The Barred Owl is mostly a nocturnal hunter, but can sometimes be seen hunting before dark. This occurs on dark cloudy days or in mating season.
The courtship period of the Barred Owl begins in February with the breeding period occurring between March and August. The male Barred Owl hoots and the females give what are called “contact calls.” The males chase after females and the males display themselves by swaying back and forth, raising their wings, and hovering near a branch (flirting). The Barred Owls nest in abandoned nests of crows, squirrels, Cooper’s Hawk, and Red shouldered Hawk, or in tree cavities. NESTING OF THE BARRED OWL
The female lays an average of 2-4 eggs, which are white, almost perfectly round, and with a bit of a rough texture or feel to the egg. The eggs are laid, one per every2-3 days and the incubation period, which begins when the first egg is laid, lasts 28-33 days. While the female is on the nest, the male brings her food. The young leave the nest at about the age of 4 weeks. When the young Barred Owl leaves the nest, it cannot fly and instead crawls out of the nest by using its beak and talons to sit on nearby branches. These young owls are called “branches.” The young can fly at 35-40 days and the parents continue to care for the young for at least 4 months (much longer than do other owl species). The young leave as far as 6 miles before they settle down. Pairs tend to mate for life and keep the same nests for many years.
The Barred Owl can be found in southeastern Alaska and British Columbia east to Nova Scotia. It can be found south from there through the eastern Great Plains to Oklahoma and east to Virginia. It can also be found from central Arkansas east to North Carolina and south to eastern Texas and southern Florida. One type of Barred Owl can also be found in Mexico. RANGE OF THE BARRED OWL
click here to see a map
The Barred Owl’s brown eyes make it special because most owls have yellow eyes. Another unusual thing about this owl is that they have been seen sharing a nest and the duties of incubation with hawks resulting both species’ eggs hatching. The young Barred Owls climb trees by grabbing the bar of the tree with its beak and talons then flaps its wings, then lets its beak go to stretch its neck and grab higher up the bark with its beak again. In addition to eating mice, the Barred Owl’s prey can also be small mammals, reptiles, fish, insects, bats, chicken, woodpeckers, crayfish and rabbits. digested, such as feathers, bones, and fur make up their pellets. It is a nocturnal species so that most of its activities, like feeding, happen during the night. Their name comes from the fact that they have white bars that go crosswise on their neck and breast. SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE BARRED OWL
click here to see a dissected owl pellet About This Background This background was created from images of sculptures created by this team's members. The sculptures were photographed using a digital camera, edited using PhotoShop 6.0, copied and pasted together to make the new image that we used for this background.
