Courtesy of Carl Peters • An Eastern screech owl perches on a shepherd’s hook holding bird feeders in an Erwin yard.
I received an email from Susan Peters, an Elizabethton resident, along with a photo taken of a small owl by her brother, Erwin resident Carl Peters.
The photo was taken at a friend’s home in Erwin when the owl perched on a shepherd’s hook used for holding a hanging bird feeder.
Photo by Bryan Stevens • Lucy, a rehabilitated owl living in captivity at Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina, educates the public about her fellow owls.
“It’s a beautiful little hunter,” Susan remarked in her email, adding that she would love to have the owl identified. She speculated that the visitor might be a Northern saw-whet owl or boreal owl. The latter would have been far out of range. Saw-whet owl was a possibility considering these tiny owls are known to reside on Unaka Mountain, but a closer study pointed to the identity of the visitor being an Eastern screech-owl.
As Susan pointed out in her email, no ear tufts are prominently visible on the bird in the photo. But any number of reasons could explain the absence of the ear tufts. These tufts, which are actually feathers that the ow can control, help with camouflage or to signal an individual owl’s mood. They can raise their tufts if they want to appear larger and more intimidating or flatten them to blend in with a tree trunk, and they may also flatten them when agitated or in a state of attentiveness.
There’s not a lot in the photo for a size comparison with the bird, but it seemed more the size of a screech-owl than the slightly smaller saw-whet owl. I’ve seen both owls and the saw-whet always strikes me as more dainty than a screech-owl.
An adult Eastern screech-owl is about 10 inches long, which is about the same size as an American robin. The owl, however, is much more sturdily built than the robin. This owl’s wingspan is usually between 18 and 24 inches. Weight varies, but a heavy screech owl weighs only 6 to 8 ounces. That’s equivalent to a cup of water.
Eastern screech-owls come in two color variations, sometimes referred to as “morphs.” These are red or rufous and gray. There is a rare brown variation that may be a hybrid of a red owl and a gray owl. The highest percentage of red screech owls occurs in Tennessee, of all places, with an estimated 79 percent of owls in the Volunteer State being of the red variety. I’ve actually not seen a red morph in many years. My recent sightings have been of gray individuals. The owl in Carl’s photo appears to be a red morph.
Eastern screech-owls are effective predators, or as Susan described them, “beautiful little hunters,” but they mostly tackle small prey, such as house sparrows, mice and large insects.
Owls are more common than we think; we simply don’t encounter them often because of their nocturnal lifestyle. The Eastern screech-owl has proven very adaptable to living in close proximity to human beings.
Many myths have taken root about owls. Some of these are more grounded in reality than others.
Photo by Bryan Stevens
An Eastern Screech-Owl at rest in a roosting hole in a large sycamore tree.
A prevalent belief is that owls are wise. Of course, that’s a relative term. Is it meant they are wiser than other birds or wiser than human beings. According to the website for the International Owl Center, owls are probably seen as wise due to their large eyes, resolute posture and relatively silent behavior. The website acknowledges that owls are good at being owls, but they are stubborn birds when people attempt to train captive specimens to perform tasks.
Not all owls, despite persistent claims, are nocturnal. It’s true, according to the International Owl Center, that a large proportion of owls are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night.
But there are always exceptions. According to the International Owl Center, a few owls are diurnal, meaning they are active during the day, and some others are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk.
There are approximately 230 to 250 species of owls. There’s some debate among the experts about the exact number. Here are some interesting common names for some of those species: Golden masked owl, ashy-faced owl, white-fronted scops owl, black-capped screech-owl, cinnamon screech owl, snowy owl, Eurasian eagle owl, spectacled owl, mottled wood owl, great grey owl, pearl-spotted owlet, little owl, barking owl, powerful owl, Tasmanian boobook, chocolate boobook, laughing owl, long-eared owl and short-eared owl.
I’ve been hearing two species of owl – Eastern screech-owl and great horned owl – at home this fall. That’s the other thing. You’re much more likely to hear an owl than see one. I don’t mind. It makes this little bird a bit more mysterious, and there’s something to be said to being able to put on an air of mystery.
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Share a sighting, ask a question or make a comment by emailing me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.
Photo by Bryan Stevens
An Eastern Screech-Owl perches in the branches of an Eastern hemlock.
Our Fine Feathered Friends 