SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

East vs West

Eastern Screech Owls (Megascops asio)—the type found on the East Coast—and Western Screech Owls (Megascops kennicottii) look alike—so much so that DNA analysis or the birds' songs are necessary to tell them apart.

Normally, screech owls neither hoot nor screech—instead they have a trill for their typical territorial call, with four individual calls per second, voiced one after the other (although the sound does not resemble screeching or screaming). They also have a kind of "song" which is used in courtship and, as a duet, between members of a pair. Calls differ widely between species in type and pitch, and in the field are often the first indication of these birds' presence, as well as the most reliable means to distinguish between species. The distinctness of many species of screech-owls was first realized when vastly differing calls of externally similar birds from adjacent regions were noted.
Screech owls come in gray or red (rofous) polymorphic morph
The common name "screech owl" is sometimes used for the not closely related Barn Owl as well.

Gray Morph


Injured Red Morph


Vocalization of the western screech owl