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Great Horned Owls may mate for life. They stay in the same territory all year but remain solitary until January when they begin courting. Watch their courting rituals here. The female typically lays two eggs starting in February in our area. Eggs hatch in about a month, and they fledge about 2 1/2 months later. The families stay together all summer, and the juveniles disperse in autumn, sometimes traveling up to 250 miles before settling down.
The 6 to 8 months that the Great Horned Owls spend raising their brood and teaching survival skills pay off in about a 50% survival rate the first year. Believe it or not, this is a fairly high survival rate for birds in their first year.
Barred Owls also mate for life and begin their courtship in February. Listen to their caterwauling mating calls here. Egg-laying is usually in March but can be as late as August. The female lays 2 to 4 eggs. Incubation and time to fledge is about 2 ½ months. The young disperse in the autumn and move only about 6 miles from their parents’ territory.
The Barred Owl range is expanding in the American northwest and has moved into the range of the Northern Spotted Owl. The Spotted Owl became famous in the 1980s and 1990s as the object of lawsuits by the Seattle Audubon Society against proposed logging in the owl’s forested habitat. A judge ruled that the owl must be protected. The Barred Owl threatens the Spotted Owl by being more aggressive in claiming territory and interbreeding with the Spotted Owl. Faced again with extinction, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed killing 470,000 Barred Owls in the Spotted Owl territory over the next 30 years. Comments on this proposal ended on January 16.
Eastern Screech Owls mate for life and stay in their breeding area year-round. Their courting ritual is elaborate, with many exchanges of various whistles and whinnies. Watch here. Egg-laying begins in mid-April with an average of three to five eggs. It only takes about two months between egg-laying and fledging. In an unusual strategy, siblings disperse together and do not stray far from the parents’ territory. Because the Screech Owl is smaller, the young suffer greater predation, and their survival rate is only about 70% for the first year.
One of the best ways to find an owl during the day is to pay attention to the mobbing behavior of other birds. Mobbing occurs when birds find a predator, like an owl, and harass it by dive-bombing it and loudly screaming at it to chase it away or to call attention to it. Crows hate Great Horned Owls, so if you hear a gathering of crows protesting loudly, look up!
Please contact me if you have any questions at wlsngang@verizon.net.
Jeobirdy Answer: The plumes of feathers sticking up on a Great Horned Owl have this name.
Jeobirdy Question: What are plumicorns? They have nothing to do with the owl’s ears, which are close to its eyes.
Jeobirdy Answer: The projections sticking up on a Giraffe are called this name.
Jeobirdy Question: What are Occicones? When you get to be on Jeopardy, you will get this Answer correctly!
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