Eastern Screech Owl
Eastern Screech Owls are widespread throughout most of eastern North America, and there are quite a few pairs in the Cape May woodlands. Of course, you would not know it as they only come out after dark and are so rarely seen. About eight inches long, or cardinal-sized, they are small and very hard to spot in trees at night. They often stay quite high, and like most owls, sit motionless. Given that we usually notice movement when spotting birds, they are a devil to find. I see them mostly in deciduous woods, often in wetter areas. They are often regulars in gardens with plenty of trees.
I always love to see screech owls. So how do you find one?
The best bet is to just get lucky. Every now and then you can come across one in the daytime. I always remember seeing a brown thing that looked like a screech owl. A quick look with binoculars was, as I suspected, just a clump of leaves. A few minutes later, something was bothering me, so I took another, more careful look. Lo and behold, it had eyes and was looking back at me.
A better way to find one is to look for cavities in the daylight. They nest and usually roost in these cavities. They will often come out to the entrance to survey the surroundings; I suspect a bit of warmth from the sun is a good thing on a cold winter day. They tend to use the same spots, so a few unproductive trips with no sighting doesn’t mean they have gone. Some sites where they live are common knowledge and draw a lot of attention. It is generally accepted that if you do find an owl, don’t share the sighting as they tend to get disturbed. Even though daytime owls often have their eyes open, it does not mean they are not sleeping!
Birders often imitate their call or play a recording to agitate other birds. Eastern Screech-Owl can have up to 80 percent of their diet as other birds and they will take just about anything up to their own size. They are small but ferocious predators. As a result, any bird hearing a screech owl will come to harass it, so it skedaddles from the area. Sometimes owls will respond to the noise thinking it is another owl and call back. This is a great way to find them: looking for trees likely to have cavities near the call is a good start. Hearing a lot of commotion is also a sign that an owl, or other predator, is nearby.
Owls are more likely to respond at night. Just simply going for a walk and listening works really well. I find August and September are often good months. They become more vocal after the breeding season and presumably youngsters—and perhaps some adults—start roaming and they turn up in new places. Nearly all sightings in my garden were from August and September.
Yes, you can play a recording to imitate its trill and descending ‘whinny,’ but more fun is to do it yourself. Get some saliva in the back of your throat and whistle through it. It took me months to get the hang of it, but some seem able to do it with a few tries. Birds certainly respond when it’s done quite well.
Eastern Screech Owls, like other owls, nightjars, grouse, and other woodland birds vary in color from warm rufous to pale gray with nearly all of them some combination of both if you look closely. While these two colors are often called ‘morphs,’ personally, I don’t think they are. Their colors are probably just thought of to better blend into their environment. Birds with strong rufous tones are commoner in the moist, dark, southern deciduous forests; in either case, grayer birds are more dominant in the northern, drier, coniferous forest where the overcolors of the environment are paler and grayer. This pattern is the same for other woodland species. Recent research shows that grayer birds have slower metabolism—suitable for saving energy in the colder north. Females are more likely to be rufous than males, and rufous birds must eat more to survive and have higher mortality rates in winter.
Yes, there is still so much to learn and question about what may well be our most common owl!
