It’s simple to clarify why birders discover owls similar 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 be sure that they’re not often seen.
However once you do lastly see an owl, that encounter is prone to dwell lengthy within the reminiscence. I’ve vivid recollections of a Nice Gray Owl, searching in a Could 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 unprecedented Spot-bellied Eagle Owl in a steaming Indian jungle, entrancing me with its fabulous lengthy ear tufts and a face that appeared like an previous 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 this planet, this can be a household that we’re prone to come again to (David Tomlinson).
Northern Noticed-Whet Owl
Photograph from Wikimedia Commons
If you’re on the lookout for lovely in a species, you’ve it within the Northern Noticed-Whet Owl. These little owls roost low in cedars and different evergreens. Many instances, when I’ve stumble upon this owl, it opens its eyes extensive however in any other case may be very calm in my presence.
My favourite Noticed-Whet reminiscence is when my husband and I had 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 the best way 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 a tremendous night! (Leslie Kinrys).
Northern Hawk Owl
Excluding the barn owls, there are at present reckoned to be 234 species of owls on this planet. Most are shy, nocturnal, and arduous 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 potential for an owl to be, making it for me the rock star of an enchanting 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 brief tails, the Hawk Owl’s is uncharacteristically lengthy. What you may’t see it that its plumage can also be extra compact than different owls, and the sound-deadening filaments on the feather suggestions, typical of virtually all owls, are poorly developed.
If you’re fortunate sufficient to be in a Hawk Owl’s territory, then discovering the chook isn’t an issue, for they like uncovered perches at tops of bushes, bushes, and even fence posts. Right here they sit, wanting extra like a falcon than an owl, typically with the tail cocked at an angle. In the case of searching, consider shrike relatively 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 point out it to me. He was sure we’d see it, explaining that it will come to us, relatively than the opposite method spherical. We arrived at an in depth snow-covered subject, fringed by distant spruce bushes. My buddy produced a white mouse, which he launched onto the snow. Inside seconds the owl was arrowing throughout the sector in the direction of us. It grabbed the unlucky mouse simply toes from us, earlier than departing with its lunch. Beautiful, however I couldn’t assist however really feel just a little sorry for the mouse (David Tomlinson).
Quick-eared Owl
The Quick-eared Owl and I am going method again to the purpose it was the primary owl I ever noticed. I’ve seen a single owl searching on the Frisian Island of Schiermonnikoog, I’ve had a Quick-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 1000’s of Northern Shovelers in a rice subject, 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 Quick-eared Owl is the last word owl of Christmas – the largest likelihood of recognizing them is in wintertime when days are brief and temperatures low. It’s additionally an owl that’s splendidly accommodating, for it hunts throughout the day in extensive open areas with none of that nighttime stealth sneakiness of different owls (Peter Pennig).
Sokotra Scops Owl
The Socotra Scops Owl, which is just about 15-16 cm lengthy, inhabits semi-deserts and rocky landscapes with scattered bushes and bushes 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 throughout the day. It’s estimated that there are about 1000 pairs on Socotra, with the species being extra frequent within the central and japanese 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 couple of 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 highway, we stopped the automobile and I opened my door, twiddling with a digicam setting. In reality, I used to be nonetheless fiddling as I started to stride in the direction of the barn door – which nearly led to me lacking the chook 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 examine me out earlier than gliding off over the bushes. Someway I didn’t understand how massive Barn Owls are till I noticed one for myself. Nevertheless, I felt horrible that I may need by chance spooked this magnificent creature, and I by no means returned to see it once more.
In keeping with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: “American Barn Owls dwell 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 extensive open areas they should survive (Erika Zambello).
Eurasian Eagle-Owl
The Eurasian Eagle-Owl is a beast of a chook and amongst the world’s very largest owls. Its name, a far-carrying low “oo-hu”, is generally 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 house space of southwest Germany, Eurasian Eagle-Owls have turn out to be moderately 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-known 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 prime 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 infrequently even seen them from my condominium inside the metropolis of Heidelberg, and so they absolutely rank as one in every of my higher “yard birds”.
My work as a biologist for the limestone and gravel mining business 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 this present day, the looks of an Eagle-Owl by no means fails to amaze and captivate me. They’re, actually, a beast of a chook (Jochen Roeder).
Snowy Owl
It’s going to be a superb 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 studies of Snowy Owls, one as far south as Maryland. Irruptions occur when there are such a lot of lemmings the earlier summer time that the Snowy Owl inhabitants goes into Child Increase mode, and wholesome younger owls head south, hopefully to a seashore close to me.
This implies there will probably be plenty of blissful work for the volunteers of Challenge SNOWStorm, the nonprofit group that attaches tiny transmitters to Snowys after which tracks their actions again to the far north. The mission was impressed by the Nice Snowy Owl Irruption of 2013-14 and has produced a wealth of knowledge on native wintering floor actions and nocturnal searching actions. You’ll be able to learn extra concerning the particular person tagged owls and see their maps on the Challenge 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
Youngsters! 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 previous and its nest was found close to our chook membership feeders. It’s common to seek out Nice Horned Owl nests in New York Metropolis. It’s our commonest owl, documented as breeding because the mid-19th century although in all probability in residence for many years earlier than. Its inhabitants has expanded within the state, in all probability because of the improve 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 stop 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 canines). That is the perfect a part of city owling, seeing the awe in individuals’s faces once you level out the owl nest with downy nestlings peering out, or perhaps Papa standing guard a number of 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 unsure 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 had been discovered breeding on the previous crows’ nest on the close by fish farm (in contrast to 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 fairly simple enterprise: you need 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 file 734 Lengthy-eared Owls had been counted in the primary city sq. in Kikinda, in December 2009. With ever-warmer winters, that determine is decrease now. One of the 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 a number of dozen birds, a number of have 400, after which comes the crown jewel – Kikinda, the World Owl Capital.
Winter flocks being really easy, I significantly cherish these discovered by sheer luck, with out earlier data, just like the one searching at sundown, a number of 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 (picture). It was a small roost of 5 dozy birds with amber eyes, irresistibly lovely (Dragan Simic).
Brown Fish Owl
The world round Delhi has a surprisingly giant variety of chook species, together with a number of owls. An area information promised to point out me 5 species and delivered on 4 of them, together with the Brown Fish Owl.
In keeping with the information, this particular person did moderately properly regardless of solely having one eye (although that makes you surprise a bit concerning the supposed significance of eyesight for owls).
It was, nevertheless, relentlessly mobbed by most of the bigger passerines – unhealthy for the owl, however making it a lot simpler to seek 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 wanting of all owl species, and anybody who has ever used the owl as an emblem or brand for one thing ought to in all probability pay royalties to the species.
Happily, additionally it is one of many simpler to see owls, at the very least in China. I’ve seen it in 3 provinces up to now (Internal 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 title Athene noctua refers to Athene, the goddess of knowledge (good), struggle (not so good), and the liberal arts (good once more). Apparently, her favourite chook was the owl, an historical affiliation along with her primitive position 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 seemingly, 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 relatively small eagle owl, I discovered it to be fairly massive and spectacular.
Common birders in Southern Africa would in all probability have been much less impressed – apparently, it’s the most typical owl species there in lots of areas (not for nothing, the scientific title is Bubo africanus). However that didn’t diminish my pleasure in any method (Kai Pflug).
Images by the authors if not indicated in any other case. Cowl picture: Barn Owl chicks, Visselhoevede space, Germany (picture Kai Pflug)