Angel Eyes
by Geri Glavis
Title
Angel Eyes
Artist
Geri Glavis
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Photography by Geri Glavis.
The Barred Owl�s hooting call, �Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?� is a classic sound of old forests and treed swamps. But this attractive owl, with soulful brown eyes and brown-and-white-striped plumage, can also pass completely unnoticed as it flies noiselessly through the dense canopy or snoozes on a tree limb. Originally a bird of the east, during the twentieth century it spread through the Pacific Northwest and southward into California.
The Great Horned Owl is the most serious predatory threat to the Barred Owl. Although the two species often live in the same areas, a Barred Owl will move to another part of its territory when a Great Horned Owl is nearby.
Pleistocene fossils of Barred Owls, at least 11,000 years old, have been dug up in Florida, Tennessee, and Ontario.
Barred Owls don�t migrate, and they don�t even move around very much. Of 158 birds that were banded and then found later, none had moved farther than 6 miles away.
Despite their generally sedentary nature, Barred Owls have recently expanded their range into the Pacific Northwest. There, they are displacing and hybridizing with Spotted Owls�their slightly smaller, less aggressive cousins�which are already threatened from habitat loss.
Young Barred Owls can climb trees by grasping the bark with their bill and talons, flapping their wings, and walking their way up the trunk.
The oldest Barred Owl on record was at least 24 years old.
Barred Owls roost on branches and in tree cavities during the day and hunt by night. Territorial all year round, they chase away intruders while hooting loudly. They are even more aggressive during nesting season (particularly the females), sometimes striking intruders with their feet. Pairs probably mate for life, raising one brood each year. Their nests are preyed upon by other large owls and hawks, as well as by weasels and raccoons. When humans interfere with a nest, the parent may flee, perform a noisy distraction display with quivering wings, or even attack. Other birds recognize Barred Owls as predators; small songbirds, crows, and woodpeckers may band together to mob them. Their most dangerous predator is the Great Horned Owl, which eats eggs, young birds, and occasionally adults.
Barred Owls are fairly numerous and their populations increased 1.7 percent per year between 1966 and 2010, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Partners in Flight estimates their global breeding population at 3 million, with 91 percent spending some time in the U.S., 7 percent in Canada, and 3 percent in Mexico. They rate 7 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score and are not on the 2012 watch list. Until the twentieth century, Barred Owls were residents of old, undisturbed forests in eastern North America. They were probably restricted from moving into northwestern boreal forests because of frequent forest fires. But fire suppression�along with tree planting in the Great Plains�allowed them to spread northward and westward during the past century. They eventually expanded south along the West Coast as far as northern California, where they began competing with Spotted Owls. Barred Owls have displaced these slightly smaller and less aggressive owls and started hybridizing with them, further threatening the already compromised Spotted Owl population. Barred Owls are forest birds. They tend to occur in older forests and they need large, dead trees for nest sites; these requirements make them sensitive to expansion of logging. For this reason, the Barred Owl is often used as an indicator species for managing old forests.
Uploaded
September 24th, 2014
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