Snow Owl July 2003

BARKING OWL –   

A medium-sized brown Owl with white spots on its wings, a strongly streaked breast and brilliant yellow eyes. They are usually seen roosting in open in deep shade. The forehead, crown, nape, and facial disc are brown, varying in shade from dark to light sandy. Some birds have thinly penciled white eyebrows. The upper wings and back are brown with large white spots and the upper tail inconspicuously barred brown. The throat is brown, white streaked brown, or white. Throat feathers are erectile giving a bearded appearance in white-throated birds. The breast and belly are white, heavily streaked brown with feathering extending onto the pale yellow legs. Under the tail is broadly barred white and brown. Eyes are large and have a yellow iris. The bill is dark horn or blackish. Barking Owls characteristically roost in isolated stands of trees in open country, often faithful to same spot for months or years. They are attracted to water and may bathe regularly early in the morning.

These pale, nearly worldwide, birds are closely associated with man through their traditional use in the Old World of barn lofts and church steeples as nesting sites. Although widely known beforehand, it was in 1769 when the Barn Owl was first officially described by Giovanni Scopoli, an Italian naturalist. The species name "alba" also refers to the colour white. Other names for the Barn Owl have included Monkey-faced Owl, Ghost Owl, Church Owl, Death Owl, Hissing Owl, Hobgoblin or Hobby Owl, Golden Owl, Silver Owl, White Owl, Night Owl, Rat Owl, Scritch Owl, Screech Owl, Straw Owl, and Delicate Owl. 

The Barred Owl is widely distributed in North America , ranging from southern Canada south throughout much of the Midwest and eastern United States and into the mountains of Mexico and Central America . They are found throughout North Carolina , primarily in swamps, river bottoms, and moist woodlands. They prey on a wide variety of animals, including small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, other birds and sometimes even fish. Mice seem to be the preferred item in their diet. Like other owls, the barred owl has the unusual habit of coughing up pellets of undigested hair and bone from its prey. Owl pellets are often found beneath a favoured roosting tree, indicating where an owl spends it daytime hours resting after a night of hunting. Barred Owls may occasionally be seen flying during daylight hours, particularly in late afternoon or on a dull, cloudy day. Barred owls begin nesting sometimes as early as January or February. These owls prefer nesting in large tree cavities in evergreen forests but may also utilize an old hawk's nest. No nesting material is brought into the cavity and the 2 to 3 eggs are laid directly on the bare wood chips found in the hole. Incubation takes around 28 days. The young owls are blind at hatching but their eyes open in about a week when they first begin moving around in the nest. By three weeks, the young birds are starting to develop the spotted and barred pattern of the adults. 

A very small buteo (the smallest in the Midwest ), the broad-winged hawk has a dark brown back and a light breast and belly. The adult has reddish horizontal barring underneath while the immature bird's barring runs vertically and is browner. The tail of the adult is brown to gray with broad white stripes, and the immature bird's tail is brown with a light-black terminal band. In all ages the sexes look alike.
 
Found in dense, unbroken deciduous or mixed deciduous/coniferous woodlands, the broad-winged hawk utilizes parts of woodlands for nesting that the red-tailed hawk and red-shouldered hawk do not. They are often found feeding near openings created by roads, trails, or wetlands. This is a very migratory hawk moving south to winter in Central and South America . During migration they can be seen in large "kettles" over places like Hawk Ridge in Duluth in numbers up to 8,000 to 10,000 per day.

The Burrowing Owl lives in a burrow, not in a tree. In the late 1970s there were about 2,100 breeding pairs left in Canada . By 1987, the population had dropped by half, with 700 pairs remaining in Alberta.After continued decline, burrowing owl status was upgraded from threatened to endangered this year. 
 
Burrowing owls only spend the summer in Alberta . It's not known exactly where they winter, but they probably migrate to the southwestern United States or Mexico.Unlike most owls, these ones live in burrows in the ground, are active during the day and prefer to eat insects. In some populations, breeding pairs live close together in colonies. They take over and modify abandoned burrows of badgers, gophers or foxes. 

It is sometimes referred to as the "chicken hawk." In fairness, many types of hawks have been dubbed "chicken hawk," including the red-tailed hawk. 

WARRIOR BIRDS CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

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