Howdy, politicados, its time for another exciting WPT header. This week’s little flying razorblade is the eastern screech owl. This owl is common in north America, from Canada to Mexico and west across the continent to the Rocky Mountains. It is native to “most wooded environments” throughout its range and is the most well adapted to human environments of the various owls which share that range. Eastern screech owls come in three colors, referred to as morphs. Birds with red or “rufous” plumage tend to live in the south, where they blend with pine trees and changing leaves. Gray morphs are more common in the north, where they hide very effectively among deciduous hardwood trees native to the area. There is also a hybrid “brown morph” found only in Florida so far.
“Eastern screech owls inhabit open mixed woodlands, deciduous forests, parklands, wooded suburban areas, riparian woods along streams and wetlands (especially in drier areas), mature orchards, and woodlands near marshes, meadows, and fields. They try to avoid areas known to have regular activity of larger owls, especially great horned owls. Their ability to live in heavily developed areas outranks even the great horned and certainly the barred owl; screech owls also are considerably more successful in the face of urbanization than barn owls following the conversion of what was once farmland.[4] Due to the introduction of open woodland and cultivated strips in the Great Plains, the range of eastern screech owls there has expanded.”
Eastern screech owls hunt exclusively at night on a wide, wide variety of creatures, from small mammals to insects and crayfish. They also prey on more than 100 species of birds, sometimes taking over and nesting areas and eating the former occupants. Unlike the tufts at the top of its head, the eastern screech owl’s ears are located asymmetrically on its skull, allowing it to triangulate sounds by comparing what each ear detects. The owl’s sense of hearing is so acute that it can sense prey under vegetation or snow. The feathers that it uses to fly are serrated at the tips, muffling the sound of flapping. Both asymmetrical ears and special quiet wings are adaptations shared by most owl species and allow them to hunt silently in darkness. Screech owls will feed on birds which come to birdbaths or bird feeders, and the colleague sitting next to me confirmed that they took down their bird feeder because it was attracting owls and hawks.
Eastern screech owls do not build nests, they roost in cavities in trees, whether natural or artificial, and seem to prefer those excavated by northern flickers or pileated woodpeckers. They lay their eggs directly on the cavity floor, or on the layer of fur and feathers left over from previous prey which lines the bottom of the space. They will readily set up shop in human-made nesting boxes, and studies show that they breed just about as successfully in a nesting box as a naturally occurring cavity.
Keep it real this weekend, friends, and be sure to prey on a wide variety of insects, arachnids, small mammals and any local birds standing between you and a nice hole to fill up with the gruesome remains of meals that didn’t hear you coming out of the night.
Links: https://tinyurl.com/29y4cz9a, https://tinyurl.com/yjtbmtwn, https://tinyurl.com/msrmw4pt, https://tinyurl.com/ypbr2uu5
