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REHABILITATION
AND
CONSERVATION
EDUCATION
Young Sqreech Owls
The center took in a large number of Screech Owls during the summer of 2005. There are eight in the large photo if you can find them.
These are a few of the many baby screech owls that were admitted to Nature’s Nursery this past spring.
Most of these came in as healthy nestlings or fledglings that simply got out of the nest before they could fly (as almost all birds do) and found themselves in dangerous places.
Previously, we had no hopes of knowing how well they did after their release. Now, thanks to Steve Lauer of Waterville, we may be able to collect a little data once our patients leave us. Steve has kindly agreed to band all of our birds of prey before their release. Now that the birds are banded, we will get reports if any of them end up at another facility or if they are found injured or dead.
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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.
