American Barred Owl Habitats: Brown Bodies, Cavity Nests, White Eggs

Summary: North American barred owl habitats in the eastern and western United States and in western Canada and Mexico mix brown bodies, cavity nests and white eggs.

barred owl (Strix varia); Whitby, Ontario, east central Canada; January 2005: Mdf, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

North American barred owl habitats adjoin cultivation through Strigidae family member appetites for insects and snakes and naturalism through distribution ranges in Canada, eastern and Pacific coastal United States and western Mexico.

Barred owls bear the common names eight-hooter and hoot-owl for barred bodies and eight-plus-syllable hoots and the scientific name Strix varia for screeching and variable plumage. Described in 1799 by Benjamin Smith Barton (Feb. 10, 1766-Dec. 19, 1815), they contain Florida georgica (rural), nominate northern varia and Texas helveola (pale yellow) subspecies. They displace, and do occasional interbreeding with, spotted owls (Strix occidentalis [screeching westerner]) as distribution ranges draw closer along westernmost Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Eighteen-year lifespans expect conifer forests, deep woodlands, lowland riparian forests, mature, streamside or upland forests, mixed hardwoods, northwestern conifer rainforests, southern cypress swamps and suburban parks.

December through September facilitate brooding one one- to five-egg clutch in branch, cavity or platform nests 15 to 40 feet (4.57 to 12.19 meters) above ground.

Mothers-to-be sometimes gather green sprigs of pine as lining for abandoned Copper's hawk, crow, red-shouldered hawk or squirrel branch, cavity or platform nests or for nest-boxes. Branch, cavity or platform nests house elliptical to spherical, 1.69- to 2.21-inch (43- to 56-millimeter) by 1.49- to 1.77-inch (38- to 45-millimeter), semi-glossy, smooth, white eggs. Mothers-to-be initiate 28- to 33-day incubations of rough-surfaced eggs while fathers-to-be implement daily family food hunts at the water's edge, from perches and into nocturnal roosts.

Agroindustrialists, drivers, hunters and trappers and crows, great horned owls, jays, northern goshawks, raccoons and weasels jeopardize North American barred owl habitats from Canada through Mexico.

Downy, helpless hatchlings know soft, thick, white coats and, two weeks later, brown-barred heads, necks and underparts, brown-barred, white-tipped wing feathers and buff-based, long, white-tipped coats. Nestlings live with mothers off food from fathers the first three weeks and, as four-week- to four-plus-month-olds, on nearby branches while, as six-week-olds, learning to fly .

Adults manage mixing beetles, crayfish, crickets, earthworms, frogs, grasshoppers, lizards, mice, moles, rats, ray-finned fishes, salamanders, scorpions, shrews, slugs, snails, snakes, spiders, toads, turtles and voles. Their diets also need bats, blackbirds, buntings, chipmunks, doves, ducks, egrets, foxes, grouse, hares, jays, mink, muskrats, opossums, pigeons, quail, rabbits, screech-owls, squirrels, weasels and woodpeckers.

Barred owl habitats at 4,265.09- to 10,170.6-foot (1,300- to 3,100-meter) altitudes above sea level offer winter-coldest temperatures at minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 degrees Celsius).

Aspen, beech, cedar, fir, hemlock, hickory, larch, maple, oak, pine, poplar and spruce dense-, old-growth forests and wooded swamps near water sources promote barred owl niches.
Far-sighted, forward-looking eyes dark brown for nightly hunts, not orange for daily and nightly hunts or yellow for daily hunts, qualify as adult barred owl hallmarks. Barred breasts and tails, black-tipped talons, brown upper-parts, feathered feet and legs, large, round heads, rounded, white-spotted wings, streaked bellies and yellow bills reveal adult presences. Flapped, gliding flight on 38.98- to 43.31-inch (99- to 110-centimeter) wingspans suggest 6.93- to 19.68-inch- (43- to 50-centimeter-) long, 17- to 37-ounce (481.94- to 1,048.93-gram) adults.

Higher-pitched female and lower-pitched male cackles, caterwauling, caws, gurgles, guttural sounds, honks, hoo-aw calls and rhythmic, serial Who-cooks-for-you who-cooks-for-you-all hoots traverse North American barred owl habitats.

illustration of eggs of barred owl (Strix varia) under scientific synonym of Strix nebulosa; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate LIX, figure 3, opp. page 210: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

barred owl (Strix varia); Whitby, Ontario, east central Canada; January 2005: Mdf, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Strix-varia-005.jpg

illustration of eggs of barred owl (Strix varia) under scientific synonym of Strix nebulosa; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate LIV, figure 3, opp. page 210: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908373

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Harrison, Colin J.O. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides, 2005.

Bangs, Outram. 31 March1899.”A New Barred Owl From Corpus Christi, Texas: Syrnium nebulosum helveolum subsp. nov.” Proceedings of the New England Zoological Club, vol. I (1899-1900): 31-32.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12603363

Barton, Benjamin Smith. 1799. Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania, page 11.
Available via MDZ (Münchener DigitalisierungsZentrum Digitale Bibliothek) Digitale Sammlungen @ http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/fs1/object/display/bsb10483009_00017.html

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volumes 8-11, Birds I-IV, edited by Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Jones, Howard. 1886. Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio. Illustrations by Mrs. N.E. Jones. Vol. II. Circleville OH: s.n. (sine nomine).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908243

Latham, Joannis. 1801. “8. Strix Georgica.” Supplementum Indicis Ornithologici Sive Systematis Ornithologiae: Aves. Div. I. Terrestres. Ordo I. Accipitres, p. xv. Londini: G. Leigh, J. and S. Sotheby, MDCCCI.
Available via MDZ (Münchener DigitalisierungsZentrum Digitale Bibliothek) Digitale Sammlungen @ http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/fs1/object/display/bsb10483009_00017.html

Peterson, Alan P., M.D. "Strix varia Barton 1799." Zoonomen: Zoological Nomenclature Resource > Birds of the World -- Current Valid Scientific Avian Names > Strigiformes > Strigidae > Striginae > Strix.
Available @ http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/stri.html