Screech Owl uses newly documented scary daytime defensive posture against annoying Blue Jays and Mockingbirds consist of wide eyed blinking and open mouth snapping to look more intimidating. Mother red morph Eastern Screech Owl is trying to take a break outside the nest box in the daytime and let the fast growing owlets have some room and air to cool down. Ordinarily she would never expose herself in the daytime except for nesting season. The Blue Jays are not going to let her rest - they want to harass her until she leaves their nesting area, but she is not going to leave her nest box - thus a standoff. Father Screech Owl sometimes kills songbirds roosting in the trees at night to feed the owlets so you can't blame the Blue Jays. Screech Owls are very small owls and have different techniques to deal with threats including making themselves very skinny like a branch when a real dangerous threat is around like a hawk or big owl or puffing themselves up for some threats they can intimidate like squirrels. These behaviors can be seen in this documentary:
Eastern Screech Owl Camouflage and Defensive Survival Techniques
Blue Jays harass the female Eastern Screech Owl nesting in the nest box every morning - this attempted intimidation may make the Blue Jays - the Backyard micro managers - feel better, but I'm not sure what purpose it serves as the owls rule the night and the male owl is quietly watching all this activity from his hidden perch in the deep cover of Palmetto trees nearby. Screech Owls readily hunt and eat songbirds sleeping in trees at night. Birds that are late to turn in like Cardinals and Dove can sometimes be taken by the male owl right at dusk. If the Blue Jays were to discover the male owls daytime roost in the heavy brush they would attack him mercilessly and he would retreat. It is unlikely such pressure would stop the owls from using the nest box, but if one were to put a perch on the front of the nest box it could very well lead to failure of nesting as such a perch could be used to more seriously harass and fight with the female owl and get at the eggs. Such are the ways of Nature.
Amazing contact calls from female inside the nest box to male outside almost like telegraph Morse Code. Eastern Screech owl mating and contact sounds are in full swing and the first egg should appear any day. Mother Red Morph Eastern Screech Owl has moved into the nest box full-time and makes some unusual lengthy contact calls to Mr. Owl who is starting to bring her food in the nest box. You will not need to turn up the volume - these calls are loud!
Incredible Barred Owl Hooting Contest! Haunting "Who Cooks for You" calls echo through the deep forest as two Barred Owls compete back and forth in the afternoon in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Who will Out-Hoots who? Filmed in October 2015 this may be a territorial squabble as they are several hundred yards apart and high in the forest canopy.
First Screech Owlet to leave the nest box earlier this spring is sitting high in a tree near the nest box. It is a rocking windy day, but the little guy is doing alright. The parents will continue to feed the fledglings for several weeks.
Eastern Screech Owl parents feed wild caught food to the three owlets in the nest box. The owlets can now swallow entire frogs and lizards and have to fight for position at the entrance and in a manner seem to take turns eating, but have to be pushed out of the way at times. Watch for one owlet who doesn't like Cicadas and lets it go only to be attacked by it later! Highlights from the live broadcast of April 7th, 2015.
The Screech Owls have a minor fight over a large lizard! If we could only understand owl calls. On a short break outside the nest box Ms. Owl naturally assumes that Mr. Owl is landing next to her to hand of what looks like a rather tasty and heavy bodied lizard lacking a tail (it's too long and short legged to be a large frog or toad) - But Mr. Owl pulls back and intends to keep it for himself leading Ms. Owl to give him a sharp bite on the head and the cold shoulder. All is quickly forgotten, however, as there is much food for all. It is clear though that this year's male Screech Owl is a very discriminating hunter and eater, focusing on large exotic nocturnal reptiles and amphibians.
Screech Owl Calls and Courtship continues at 2 AM with a nice big bug delivered by Mr. Owl. The male actually landed on the camera and the female seems to take her time with the bug until eating it just at the end. Note that I need to adjust the exposure on the camera - no amount of post-processing can save overexposed video.
Eastern Screech Owls have returned to the nest box for 2015! Female Red Morph Screech Owl has been roosting in the box for 6 days now. No eggs yet, perhaps in a week or two - historically this is pretty early. Last years eggs were abandoned because the Male stopped bringing food for some reason. This is a new mother and she seems quite shy so for now I'm careful not to make eye contact or get too close to the box until they commit to it and eggs are laid. Cameras are ready!
Billed as the "only full-weekend, all-owl event in North America" the International Festival of Owlsruns from March 7-9, 2014 in Houston, Minnesota. Sounds like a great time for owl-lovers - a whole weekend dedicated to owls with programs for children and adults with lots of live owls and owl-related events and a photography contest. For the more serious owl aficionados, there are internationally known speakers, the annual World Owl Hall of Fame awards, and special Outdoor Owl Photography sessions. If you love owls this sounds like a lot of fun for a good cause.
The mission of the International Festival of Owls is to:
- spark a personal connection to owls and the environments we share with them
- provide financial support for the Houston Nature Center
I finally created a channel trailer for the companion YouTube channel for this blog - Backyard Birding...and Beyond! It's sort of a greatest hits sampler to give people an idea of what the channel is all about and hopefully entice them to watch and subscribe. It is made up of short clips from 23 different videos. If nothing else I hope it is an entertaining three minutes of nature enjoyment.
This is the text that accompanies the video on YouTube -
The home of wild Eastern Screech Owls...this is Backyard Birding ....and Beyond! Sharing original HD videos of birds and Nature in general observed in our backyard and in our travels. Our goal is to capture the unique moments when creatures interact naturally or reveal something unusual. Sometimes funny and cute, beautiful, or surprising and shocking, but always real, wild, and original. New HD videos are uploaded each week and Eastern Screech Owls are live each spring. Also free bird-call ringtones! A companion blog - Screech Owls...and Nature is at: http://screech-owls.blogspot.com . Thanks for visiting - Adventure is as near as the Backyard! If you like what you see please subscribe, comment and share to help support our work.
I had a pleasant surprise at the bookstore where I went to kill some time and, of course, check out the latest "bird books". A new release(April 16th,2013) - The Complete Book of North American Owls - was displayed prominently as a staff pick. The book is a paperback authored by James Duncan - more information on the author and the book can be found at the publisher's website - Thunder Bay Press. The book is a paperback approximately 10 by 7 inches, a nice size and format. The first impressions of the book by quickly thumbing through are quite impressive - the photographs of each owl at rest and in action are very high quality and evocative. Twenty North American Owls are highlighted and each species is given several pages with interesting narrative and distinctive traits noted. My attention was of course drawn to the Eastern Screech Owl and that section was very well done. I learned something new - that there are several varieties of tropical Screech Owls outside the United States. The text is a nice blend of introductory scientific background and approachable narrative that the novice birdwatcher or anyone that just loves owls would find entertaining and informative. I give a big thumbs up for its coverage of the small owls of North America. The price is reasonable at $19.95 retail, $17.96 with Amazon Prime. The Complete Book of North American Owls
Here is an interesting story out of Texas (link to original story). First off, that's a very unusual looking Screech Owl Nest Box, seems a bit deep. This is why we can't keep our nest boxes on trees or within reach of squirrels in trees. They will relentlessly attempt to take over the nest box. When its time to lay eggs and guard the owlets this Screech Owl is going to have a tough time defending this nest from many potential intruders. I wish the owls all the best!
As I continue to go over the video from this seasons nest box camera I come up with jewels like this. The largest owlet was barely a week old on April 17th when it attempted to swallow an entire lizard that the parents dropped into the nest box. By this time both parents would immediately start hunting after dark dropping large amounts of food, mostly lizards, into the nest box. There intent is to come back shortly and tear up the lizards for the owlets, but one couldn't wait even though it could barely see. There seemed to be an inexhaustible supply of lizards this spring partly due no doubt to the fact that it was a very warm winter. It also speaks to the lack of pesticides in the backyard - I know that's a hard call for some, but Palmetto Bugs and Mole Crickets and such along with lizards make up a large portion of their diet at nesting time. Note that the mother Screech Owl comes to the rescue of the little guy near the end to help him with the lizard.
You can enhance the chances of attracting Screech Owls to your nest box by using bird feeding stations in your yard that make good perches for the owls and other creatures. We use two Gardman USA Wild Bird
Feeding Kits that are very good as a bird feeding station and absolutely outstanding as sturdy perches. The only weakness is the pole that comes with the kit is in 4 sections and its not particularly strong or long-lasting, but we use 7ft pieces of copper plumbing pipe that makes the total kit quite strong and attractive. Its the hardware that comes with the kit that is the best part. It has held up quite well. Its sometimes hard to find this exact kit but for now its still available through Amazon. Gardman makes another slightly different Deluxe feeding station that is probably just as good.
We had a serious problem with squirrels climbing all over the feeders, but found the Woodlink 18" Squirrel Baffle did the trick in stopping them from ruining bird watching. The YouTube video below is a test we did a few months ago. This type of baffle could also be used to keep squirrels out of your Screech Owl box is it was on a sturdy galvanized metal pole. You may be able to find one for use on 4x4 wood posts, but if it doesn't swivel like this one the squirrels may well defeat it.
These are the exact products used in the video above. We don't link unless we own and use it!!
Flyways to perch and nestbox
The second Gardman unit is used as a perch just for the owl box and creates a safe flyway pattern between heavy brush cover and the nest box, making the box more attractive to the owls as well as serving as a great hunting perch at night. It is very common to see them sitting there and catching large bugs and lizards in the backyard grass which is pesticide free. It is also where they would meet during mating season and was no doubt a plus in selling the "house" to the female screech owl. Its all about neighborhood, neighborhood neighborhood.
Red Shouldered Hawk
Of course the twin perches will be generally attractive to all birds. Its always a rush to see a majestic Red-Shouldered Hawk stop by and perch in the yard. Occasionally they will take out a Dove sitting on the perch or a snake from the yard. Hawks by day and owls by night!
Dragonfly
The perch is often used as a hunting perch in the daytime by insects such as large wasps and dragonflies. In this picture you can see the owl box in the distance in the lower right. Dragonflies eat an amazing amount of insects alleviating the need for heavy pesticide use.
Dragonfly
Dragonflies use the highest tip for a daytime hunting perch. Perches will attract more birds and are especially attractive to Screech Owls.
+Images+by+Ingavalson.JPG "Great Horned Owl")
