Wild About Nature, February 2000

It was early morning. The sky was clear and the sun was shining. A movement in the trees along a farmer's field drew my eye. Because of its size and coloration, I thought this might be a hawk. The bird landed on a branch and turned toward me, blinking as the sun's rays fell upon its face. This was no hawk. It was a barred owl!

A nocturnal or semi nocturnal hunter, barred owls also hunt during the day. Perhaps this owl was out hunting due to hunger and the energy required to survive the frigid weather. They are known to hunt in the daytime when they have nestlings to feed, which in Maine would be in April and May.

The habitat of barred owls is mature woods, often low and wet, and usually near open country for foraging. They use mixed woods for nesting and roosting, and are especially attracted to mature oak woods. During the day, when they roost in trees with dense foliage, barred owls call regularly. They nest in cavities of large trees, hardwood or pine that are at least twenty inches in diameter-at-breast-height. Sometimes, lacking a suitable cavity, they use old hawk, crow, raven or squirrel nests. An owl pair often reuses the same nest site year after year.

Barred owls eat rodents, birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects. While mice are a staple of their diet, they are rather opportunistic hunters. The owl swoops and pounces upon its prey on the forest floor or in meadow grasses, and flies to a feeding perch near the nest to eat it.

The great horned owl is also a year-round resident in Maine. Barred owls and great horned owls usually stay on their breeding grounds all year. These large owls, at the top of the food chain, have home ranges comprised of hundreds of acres, depending on the quality of the habitat.

All owls swallow small prey items whole. They digest all but the bones and feathers or fur. Then they regurgitate these undigested parts in a hard pellet. Each pellet is the remains of a single prey item. When insects are eaten, the pellet is an accumulation of the exoskeletons of many individual insects. Roosting trees can be identified by the large number of pellets found on the ground beneath the tree.

Owls are silent hunters, which gives them an advantage because surprise is a great asset to a successful catch. Their flight is silent because of a structural adaptation of the first primary feather on each wing. The forward edge of the wing, being serrated instead of smooth, does not create the noise that results from airflow over a smooth surface.

Owls, in particular those which hunt at night, do so by their acute and highly specialized hearing which allows them to locate sounds precisely without using sight. They perceive the difference in time that it takes for a sound to reach one ear before the other ear, as well as variations in the intensity of the sound. The time and intensity differentials allow them to pinpoint prey quite accurately. Many owl species are sedentary and so, remaining in one area, an individual owl is intimately familiar with its habitat, such as the height of its favorite hunting perches. Its specialized hearing, combined with familiarity with its habitat, makes the owl an impressive hunter.

Owls intrigue us because they are so at home in the dark, while we, if not uncomfortable, are at a disadvantage. The have the reputation for wisdom because they see what we cannot. Their eyes, unlike other birds, are on the front of their heads like humans, so we often speak of their "face." They ask us, "Who?" This deep question invites an answer. When fortune bestows upon me an encounter with an owl, I feel its great presence. Magical creatures, owls are our formidable yet charming companions in nature.

Owls in Maine

The barred owl is a year-round resident in Maine. It is twenty inches long, with a wingspan of three feet eight inches.

The great horned owl is a year-round resident in Maine. It is twenty-five inches long, with a wingspan of four feet seven inches.

The long-eared owl is believed to be migratory in northern Maine, but a year-round resident in the southern part of the state.

The short-eared owl, which uses open grasslands, marshes and dunes, is migratory. It is probably the rarest breeding owl in Maine. The first and only nest site was reported in 1996.

The snowy owl breeds in the Artic tundra, but comes into Maine in winter, to open areas especially along the coast. Influx of wintering snowy owls often occurs when there is a crash in the population of lemmings, the rodent that is the staple of its diet.

The boreal owl breeds in Canada and may over-winter in Maine.

The eastern screech-owl is also quite rare. The last two observations in Maine, when it was heard calling, were in 1996 and 1999.

The northern saw-whet owl has been considered a permanent resident by some, but recent banding research suggests that it is migratory, leaving Maine in late fall and returning in late winter. It is only seven inches long.

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Owls in Maine