Recently a pair has nested in an osprey nest on a channel marker at the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center and another in an osprey nest at the government center in Manteo. Great horned owls use their great night vision and acute hearing to find their mammal and bird prey, and their silent flight and powerful talons to quickly dispatch it.
They feed by swallowing the animal whole or tearing it into bite-sized pieces with their sharp, hooked beak. Afterwards, they regurgitate the undigested bones and fur. Barred owls, slightly smaller than great horned owls, live in wooded, wet areas. Although primarily nocturnal, they can sometimes be seen during daylight hours, often perched on a low limb over a ditch, hunting for snakes, frogs or crayfish.
They will also take small mammals, birds and large insects. Barred owls lack the visible ear tufts and yellow eyes of the great horned; instead they have round heads and dark eyes. One of the strangest things about barred owls is their calls. Sometimes you can call barred owls in by imitating their calls. Barn owls are the scarcest of our permanent owls, in fact, they are declining on the Outer Banks and may only be occasional winter residents.
Rodenticides and collisions with vehicles are two reasons for their decline. Barn owls are about 16 inches long and are a beautiful tan and white, with a heart-shaped face. Their feeding tactic is to fly over open marshes, grasslands or farm fields looking for mice, rats and other small mammals. Barn owls produce a blood-curdling screech and have almost given me heart attacks a couple of times. If you wish to see a barn owl in this area, you can try looking for them at dawn or dusk over the marshes on Bodie Island or the farm fields on the mainland.
They are named for their tiny ear tufts, usually hidden from view. Like barn owls, they prefer to hunt over farm fields and marshes, but unlike barn owls, they roost on the ground. Short-eared owls are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk. They are mainly silent while in North Carolina, but their barking can occasionally be heard. You can also try the marshes of north Bodie Island. A lucky birder may occasionally see one hunting during daylight hours or while roosting on the ground.
They feed primarily on rodents. Our smallest visiting winter owl is the northern saw-whet owl, named for one of the many sounds that they make. This diminutive species, only 7 or 8 inches in length, spends the winter in a variety of wooded or scrubby habitats, usually roosting during the day in a dense shrub or conifer. Barred Owls rely on mice and other small rodents but eat just about anything made of meat!
They will readily grab rats, rabbits, bats, squirrels, moles, minks, weasels, opossums, a variety of birds, frogs, snakes, fish, turtles, and will even hunt around your nightly campfire to catch some sweet, juicy insects. And speaking of classical noises, their hoots are the classic sounds featured in movies and scary Halloween tales.
Scientific Name: Strix varia. Screech-owls may remind you of professional wrestlers since they are short, stocky, and have no necks!
These owls can either be grey or red, with about a third of all individuals being red. Fake, of course, because owls have REAL ears on the sides of their heads, below their feathers, in parallel with their eye line. These small owls will settle in almost any wooded area in North Carolina. Screech-owls avoid areas populated by other larger owls, most notably the Great Horned Owl. Eastern Screech-owls make various hoots, calls, and songs, but their most popular is an even pitched trill, often called a tremolo.
The tremolo is used by pairs to keep in contact with each other and lasts between 3 to 6 seconds. I think this tremolo call sounds a lot like mating toads, and I sometimes get the two confused! Scientific Name: Megascops asio. Here are a few books and resources you can purchase that will provide assistance! Links below take you to Amazon. Bird Watching HQ. To learn more about other raptors near you, check out these guides! Owls That Live in North Carolina 1.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Follow me on:. Popular Guides! Preventing Squirrels! Attracting Bluebirds. Some links may be affiliate links. We get money if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these links on our site. The Long-eared Owl, skinny with extravagant ear tufts, winters to some degree in the state but is rarely seen, not least because of its habit of roosting deep within conifer boughs.
Wintering Short-eared Owls are a bit easier to track down, particularly on the Coastal Plain; these agile, long-winged owls hunt over open fields and marshes, occasionally during broad daylight. Finally, the mighty Snowy Owl, a big Arctic hunter about the size of a Great Horned Owl that sometimes drifts well south in winter, very occasionally shows up in North Carolina this time of year, invariably drawing a lot of attention from eager birdwatchers when it does.
All owls are predators, though prey may range from insects up to the decent-sized mammals and birds that Great Horned Owls often target. Owls are generally easier to detect by sound than by sight — not really surprising, given that most are active under cover of darkness.
He holds a B. Related Articles Owls of the Northeast. Animals that Inhabit the Polar Tundra. Birds That Sound Like Owls. Types of Arizona Wild Cats. How to Identify North American Hawks.
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