It’s straightforward to clarify why birders discover owls akin to fascinating group: no different household of birds presents such a problem to the observer. In fact, the nice majority are strictly nocturnal, whereas most are additionally shy and secretive. Many are to be present in environments that we people discover difficult: tropical rainforests, boreal forests, Arctic tundra. Even the frequent species present a problem for the observer. Tawny Owls, for instance, are widespread all through Europe, however although their nocturnal hooting incessantly betrays their presence, their strictly nocturnal habits make sure that they’re hardly ever seen.
However while you do lastly see an owl, that encounter is prone to stay lengthy within the reminiscence. I’ve vivid recollections of a Nice Gray Owl, looking in a Might snowstorm in Arctic Finland; of a Hawk Owl chasing indignant Black Woodpeckers in a Swedish forest; of a Pel’s Fishing Owl, preening its soaked feathers in an enormous yellow fever tree on the banks of lazy African river; of a rare Spot-bellied Eagle Owl in a steaming Indian jungle, entrancing me with its fabulous lengthy ear tufts and a face that appeared like an outdated professor. It was a pair of Spectacled Owls that I keep in mind most from a visit to Costa Rica, not the a lot easier-to-see Resplendent Quetzals.
Right here a number of of our common contributors current their Christmas dozen, twelve owls that they know and admire. With over 250 species of owls on the planet, this can be a household that we’re prone to come again to (David Tomlinson).
Northern Noticed-Whet Owl
Picture from Wikimedia Commons
If you’re on the lookout for lovely in a species, you’ve got it within the Northern Noticed-Whet Owl. These little owls roost low in cedars and different evergreens. Many instances, when I’ve encounter this owl, it opens its eyes broad however in any other case may be very calm in my presence.
My favourite Noticed-Whet reminiscence is when my husband and I have been invited to see them being banded. We adopted the bander and noticed him pull a feminine Noticed-Whet out of the mist web. She had been attracted by the calls he had been enjoying. He introduced her into his banding station to be weighed, measured, aged, and sexed. She was calm the entire time and checked us all out. The bander confirmed a younger boy find out how to maintain and launch her on the bottom. He was cautious as a result of these tiny talons are sharp. She paused for a second, checked out us once more, after which took off. What an incredible night! (Leslie Kinrys).
Northern Hawk Owl
Excluding the barn owls, there are presently reckoned to be 234 species of owls on the planet. Most are shy, nocturnal, and laborious to see, which makes the Northern Hawk Owl one thing of an exception. It’s diurnal, usually fearless of man, and is about as un-owl-like because it’s doable for an owl to be, making it for me the rock star of an interesting household.
Figuring out Surnia ulula is easy. It has a flat-topped head and a small facial disc, whereas its giant wings taper to a degree – most owls have rounded wings. And whereas owls sometimes have quick tails, the Hawk Owl’s is uncharacteristically lengthy. What you may’t see it that its plumage can be extra compact than different owls, and the sound-deadening filaments on the feather suggestions, typical of just about all owls, are poorly developed.
If you’re fortunate sufficient to be in a Hawk Owl’s territory, then discovering the fowl isn’t an issue, for they like uncovered perches at tops of timber, bushes, and even fence posts. Right here they sit, trying extra like a falcon than an owl, usually with the tail cocked at an angle. On the subject of looking, consider shrike quite than owl, for they use their lofty vantage factors as look-out posts, swooping down on their prey. Voles are their favorites, however they’ll take birds up the scale of a Willow Grouse.
My first encounter with a Hawk Owl was in Southern Finland in January. The owl had taken up residence near the house of a birdwatcher, who had agreed to indicate it to me. He was sure we’d see it, explaining that it could come to us, quite than the opposite manner spherical. We arrived at an intensive snow-covered area, fringed by distant spruce timber. My buddy produced a white mouse, which he launched onto the snow. Inside seconds the owl was arrowing throughout the sector in direction of us. It grabbed the unlucky mouse simply toes from us, earlier than departing with its lunch. Gorgeous, however I couldn’t assist however really feel slightly sorry for the mouse (David Tomlinson).
Brief-eared Owl
The Brief-eared Owl and I’m going manner again to the purpose it was the primary owl I ever noticed. I’ve seen a single owl looking on the Frisian Island of Schiermonnikoog, I’ve had a Brief-eared Owl watching my each step within the Lezírias de Vila Franca de Xira whereas she circled overhead, eyeing me suspiciously. In the identical Lezírias, after having witnessed tens of hundreds of Northern Shovelers in a rice area, my son and I noticed 8 owls on some freshly plowed land, every on their very own lump of clay. He thought that was regular, even a bit disappointing after the multitude of geese…
The Brief-eared Owl is the last word owl of Christmas – the largest probability of recognizing them is in wintertime when days are quick and temperatures low. It’s additionally an owl that’s splendidly accommodating, for it hunts in the course of the day in broad open areas with none of that nighttime stealth sneakiness of different owls (Peter Pennig).
Sokotra Scops Owl
The Socotra Scops Owl, which is barely about 15-16 cm lengthy, inhabits semi-deserts and rocky landscapes with scattered bushes and timber on the island of Socotra within the Indian Ocean. The Socotra Scops Owl is endemic solely to the island of Socotra. On all my visits to the island of Socotra, I at all times discovered this species in palm stands in the course of the day. It’s estimated that there are about 1000 pairs on Socotra, with the species being extra frequent within the central and jap components of the island (Rolf Nessing).
Barn Owl
I’ve seen one and just one Barn Owl within the wild, however I can shut my eyes and keep in mind each element. I had heard a few Barn Owl residing in a barn in north Florida, and one afternoon determined it was excessive time I test it out. Slowly pulling as much as the street, we stopped the automobile and I opened my door, fidgeting with a digicam setting. Actually, I used to be nonetheless fiddling as I started to stride in direction of the barn door – which nearly led to me lacking the fowl altogether. I had simply barely lifted my head up when a whoosh of white erupted from the open door of the construction and took to the skies, making one lengthy arc to verify me out earlier than gliding off over the timber. By some means I didn’t understand how massive Barn Owls are till I noticed one for myself. Nonetheless, I felt horrible that I might need by chance spooked this magnificent creature, and I by no means returned to see it once more.
Based on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: “American Barn Owls stay in open habitats, together with grasslands, deserts, marshes, agricultural fields, strips of forest, woodlots, ranchlands, brushy fields, and suburbs and cities. They nest in tree cavities, caves, barns, and different buildings” – so it is smart that I noticed the Barn Owl in a rural space of farm fields and timberlands. They’re troublesome to survey, however researchers estimate there are greater than three million residing within the wild. Their numbers are threatened by growth, as homes and companies eat up the broad open areas they should survive (Erika Zambello).
Eurasian Eagle-Owl
The Eurasian Eagle-Owl is a beast of a fowl and amongst the world’s very largest owls. Its name, a far-carrying low “oo-hu”, is usually heard in late winter, and the owls will begin breeding as early as January in these areas of milder climates inside their huge Eurasian vary.
In my dwelling space of southwest Germany, Eurasian Eagle-Owls have turn into fairly frequent – as frequent at the very least as a species can get with a house vary of round 10 to twenty sq. kilometers. Their haunting drawn-out calls are thus a well-recognized sound within the nightfall of a late afternoon December stroll within the neighborhood of quarries, the place they like to construct their nests on cliff ledges or beneath small overhanging rocks on the high of scree slopes. In recent times, and since all quarries have been occupied already, Eagle-owls more and more have entered cities and cities, even going as far as to breed on balconies or giant flower packing containers. I’ve certainly heard and sometimes even seen them from my house throughout the metropolis of Heidelberg, they usually certainly rank as considered one of my higher “yard birds”.
My work as a biologist for the limestone and gravel mining trade for the final 15+ years allowed and permits for frequent encounters with this huge and deeply spectacular species, but every remark stays particular and to at the present time, the looks of an Eagle-Owl by no means fails to amaze and captivate me. They’re, really, a beast of a fowl (Jochen Roeder).
Snowy Owl
It’s going to be a great winter for Snowy Owls in North America. Principally north N.A., however who is aware of? After a few years of few appearances beneath the Arctic and sub-Arctic, we have already got a number of reviews of Snowy Owls, one as far south as Maryland. Irruptions occur when there are such a lot of lemmings the earlier summer season that the Snowy Owl inhabitants goes into Child Growth mode, and wholesome younger owls head south, hopefully to a seashore close to me.
This implies there will likely be plenty of blissful work for the volunteers of Venture SNOWStorm, the nonprofit group that attaches tiny transmitters to Snowys after which tracks their actions again to the far north. The challenge was impressed by the Nice Snowy Owl Irruption of 2013-14 and has produced a wealth of information on native wintering floor actions and nocturnal looking actions. You possibly can learn extra in regards to the particular person tagged owls and see their maps on the Venture SNOWStorm web site. In the meantime, I’m hoping for experiences just like the one captured beneath in 2012, a mature Snowy Owl roosting on the sands of a Lengthy Island seashore, the skyscrapers of New York Metropolis within the distance (Donna Schulman).
Nice Horned Owl
Children! One minute they’re little fuzz balls crammed right into a tree hole with their siblings, the subsequent they’re sitting in the course of the woods on their very own, child fuzz midway changed by juvenile physique plumage, ready for Mama to swoop in with the night time’s meal. I had watched this Nice Horned Owl fledgling because it was about two weeks outdated and its nest was found close to our fowl membership feeders. It’s commonplace to search out Nice Horned Owl nests in New York Metropolis. It’s our commonest owl, documented as breeding because the mid-19th century although most likely in residence for many years earlier than. Its inhabitants has expanded within the state, most likely as a result of enhance within the open and second-growth woodlands that it prefers. I’ve seen Nice Horned Owl nests in six parks in my borough, Queens, in addition to different areas of town. Nests are typically saved secret right here, principally to forestall stress and harassment. Typically the owls don’t cooperate although, and nest proper subsequent to a public path, the place we birders get to level it out to locals (together with pleas to leash their canine). That is the most effective a part of city owling, seeing the awe in folks’s faces while you level out the owl nest with downy nestlings peering out, or perhaps Papa standing guard just a few toes away, half hidden in ivy. “There are owls right here! Within the metropolis! That’s AWESOME. How did they get right here? The place will they go after the infants depart the nest?” I’m undecided how they received to NYC, however I do know the place they’ll go—someplace deep into the woods the place they’ll taunt us with their hoots until the center of winter when nesting will begin once more (Donna Schulman).
Lengthy-eared Owl
My first ever LEOs have been discovered breeding on the outdated crows’ nest on the close by fish farm (not like hole-nesting owls, LEOs use open nests, however they don’t construct them, solely occupy them).
But, seeing a Lengthy-eared Owl in Serbia is a reasonably easy enterprise: you desire a LEO? Okay, let’s go to this or that city park. And in winter they are going to be there, from a dozen to a number of dozen, principally, and in chilly winters as much as a number of hundred in some locations. The world document 734 Lengthy-eared Owls have been counted in the principle city sq. in Kikinda, in December 2009. With ever-warmer winters, that determine is decrease now. The very best season is from mid-November to mid-January, the colder – the higher.
It’s estimated that some 30,000 LEOs in about 450 roosts overwinter within the nation. Most of them maintain just a few dozen birds, a number of have 400, after which comes the crown jewel – Kikinda, the World Owl Capital.
Winter flocks being really easy, I notably cherish these discovered by sheer luck, with out earlier information, just like the one looking at sundown, just a few meters from me, by the levee from which I used to be counting geese coming to their roost. Or this one on the steep-cliff Danube riberbank (photograph). It was a small roost of 5 dozy birds with amber eyes, irresistibly lovely (Dragan Simic).
Brown Fish Owl
The realm round Delhi has a surprisingly giant variety of fowl species, together with a number of owls. An area information promised to indicate me 5 species and delivered on 4 of them, together with the Brown Fish Owl.
Based on the information, this particular person did fairly properly regardless of solely having one eye (although that makes you surprise a bit in regards to the supposed significance of eyesight for owls).
It was, nevertheless, relentlessly mobbed by most of the bigger passerines – dangerous for the owl, however making it a lot simpler to search out than primarily based on its cryptic look alone (Kai Pflug).
Little Owl
It needs to be unlawful to publish an owl put up that doesn’t embody the Little Owl – to me, it’s the most owlish trying of all owl species, and anybody who has ever used the owl as a logo or brand for one thing ought to most likely pay royalties to the species.
Fortuitously, it is usually one of many simpler to see owls, at the very least in China. I’ve seen it in 3 provinces up to now (Inside Mongolia, Sichuan, and Qinghai), and hope so as to add extra.
It’s named after my favourite Greek goddess, Athene. To be exact, the scientific identify Athene noctua refers to Athene, the goddess of knowledge (good), struggle (not so good), and the liberal arts (good once more). Apparently, her favourite fowl was the owl, an historical affiliation together with her primitive function as goddess of the night time (supply). If she was a human, I’m positive she would put on Doc Martens (Kai Pflug).
Noticed Eagle-Owl
Earlier than visiting the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Capetown, South Africa, I had examine a Noticed Eagle-Owl residing there – however as soon as I used to be there, I couldn’t discover it. The park workers didn’t appear to know its roost both (or extra possible, they didn’t need the owl to be disturbed an excessive amount of).
So, I walked round till I discovered it – a really blissful second. And whereas Cornell calls it a quite small eagle owl, I discovered it to be fairly massive and spectacular.
Common birders in Southern Africa would most likely have been much less impressed – apparently, it’s the commonest owl species there in lots of areas (not for nothing, the scientific identify is Bubo africanus). However that didn’t diminish my pleasure in any manner (Kai Pflug).
Photographs by the authors if not indicated in any other case. Cowl photograph: Barn Owl chicks, Visselhoevede space, Germany (photograph Kai Pflug)
