Well glad you could visit me today so I can tell you something about our species. We go by a few different names let's see if I can remember them all. There's the Northen Barred Owl, Swamp Owl, Striped OwL, Hoot Owl, Eight Hooter Owl, Wood Owl, Rain Owl, Round-headed Owl and last but not least, and here we get a little fancy, the Le Chat-Huant du Nord Owl, french for Hooting Cat of the North. Whew!, All those names to remember. Hope I can remember everything else I want to tell you about us.

We are a medium-sized grey-brown owl streaked with white horizontal strips on our chests and vertical ones on our bellies. Our faces our whitish-brown with dark brown trim and we have brown eyes and our beaks are yellow and covered in feathers. We have long tails and my plumage isn't any different then my female partner.

We are a very talkative bunch and sometimes sound like we're saying "Who cooks for you?" to you humans. Sometimes we sound like we are barking too. I, the male in case you forgot who was talking to you, have a deeper and mellower voice which is one of the things that makes me so attractive to our females.

We are very proficient at hunting and can hunt in the dark or very cloudy days. We dive upon our prey which usually consists of mice, squirrels, weasels, opossums, and rabbits. We have also been known to add birds, small fish, turtles, frogs, and snakes and once in awhile insects if we get desperate. Most of our food is eaten on the spot but sometimes the larger prey is taken back to our nest to meet our family (lol).

As far as our breeding habits are concerned usually I let my female talk about our courtship, but she's busy right now so I guess I'll have to tell you something. But no intimate details. We usually breed between March & August. We hoot and holler and flap our wings and bring presents of food to our intended. This usually does the trick. Within 30 days or so she presents me with 2 or 4 new little babies. They are not able to fly for awhile so they use their talons and beaks to sit on branches. They stay close to home until they are about 4 mos. old and even then don't stray far from home. We are what you humans would describe as monogamous and we usually live in one place for many years.

We prefer to live in the moist forests or wooded swamps and prefer North America around the east coast and Florida. We have also been known to make our homes in southern Canada east of the Rockies, and every once in awhile you can see us in Mexico. Hey we like to vacation too you know.

Well that's all for now hope you have enjoyed learning a little something about us. Hey do you peoples have a web site where we could go and read all about you?. Hoot Hoot! (Our version of lol).

The Barred Owl

Sounds
Courtship

..and for more...

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