Barred Owls maintain year-round territories in Maine, but the loss of deciduous foliage in the fall makes it just a little bit easier to see these inconspicuous birds in the winter. Folks with Barred Owl neighbors know that individuals tend to be faithful to their favorite hunting and roosting perches, which are often close to the trunks of dense evergreens. When our eyes fail, our hearing can detect their location. Barred Owls call at night, during dawn and dusk, but also sometimes during the day. They’re known for their two-phrase hoot, often phoneticized as “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?” Twelve other calls have been identified by researchers, and many more have been reported anecdotally. They’re known for being one of the most vocal owls in North America. Nesting pairs can be especially chatty with each other.
Barred Owls are named for the horizontal light and dark bars on their back, wings, and tail. The pattern’s primary function is thought to be camouflage, but as with many plumage patterns, studies have suggested that it can also communicate the fitness of individual birds. Our human senses again fall short when looking for these subtle differences.
Owls, however, have something that we lack: the ability to detect UV light. Many owls, birds in the family Strigiformes, also have feather pigments that reflect colors on the UV end of the electromagnetic spectrum, which are shorter than those in the visible light spectrum (visible to humans, that is). These pigments, called porphyrins, may help individuals recognize each other and make subtle plumage variations more pronounced. Although we can’t see them with our naked eye, porphyrins are visible as a fluorescent pink glow under a UV lamp. Newly-grown feathers glow the brightest, and researchers can use patterns in this glow to see a bird’s molt pattern, which can often reveal its approximate age. Look (and listen) for Barred Owls all year in just about any forested area.
Backyard Bird of the Month is a feature by Maine Audubon created for the Maine Home Garden News, the newsletter of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard
Barred Owl photo by Doug Hitchcox
