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A Young Screech Owl

  • The Eastern screech owl is a small nocturnal, woodland bird, seven to ten inches long but with a wingspan of almost two feet.
  • There are two color varieties of this owl, a gray phase and a red phase (cinnamon-brown coloring). Each has ear tufts and dark circles around yellow eyes, and a grey-green bill.
  • Although Screech Owls prefer wooded areas (along streams and wetlands), swamps, mature orchards, and woodlands near marshes, meadows, and fields, they are common residents of urban areas as well.
  • Their nest is loosely built of sticks, leaves, and feathers in natural or abandoned tree cavities, sometimes in barns and sheds or in nest boxes.
  • During courtship the male bobs his head, and even winks one eye at the female. If the female accepts him, she moves close and they touch bills.
  • The female lays four to eight white eggs, which hatch in less than one month, and the baby owls leave the nest in about another month.
  • The young owlets cannot fly but can climb along tree branches and will even climb back into the nest if they fall from the tree. 
  • Screech Owls are night hunters and feed on mice, frogs, snakes, crayfish, small fish, chipmunks, squirrels, shrews, bats, moles, spiders, earthworms, songbirds as large as doves and flying insects such as, moths, horseflies, and dragonflies. These owls can hunt by sound as well as by sight.
  • When threatened, an Eastern Screech Owl will stretch its body, flatten itself against a tree trunk, and tighten its feathers in order to look like a branch stub to avoid detection.
  • This owl's fluffy feather edges make them a silent hunter.
  • In western states these owls will bring live blind snakes to their nest where the snake will live. This is believed to be a way of controlling nest parasites. This seems to speed the young owl’s development.

 

Additional information links:

  

http://www.ronausting.com/screech.htm http://www.50birds.com/BPEasternScreechOwl.htm http://www.owlpages.com/species/otus/asio/Default.htm http://www.libirding.com/FeaturedBird.html