Home: Animals: Birds: Eastern Barred Owl

Bio Facts: Florida Barred Owl
Common Name: Florida Barred Owl Eastern Barred Owl
Scientific Name: Strix varia
Family: Strigidae
Order: Strigiformes
Class: Aves
Range: Southeastern Alaska through British Columbia and southern Canada, recently spreading to Washington, western Montana, Oregon, western Idaho, and California, south throughout eastern half of US. A disjointed population can be found in the central plateau of Mexico south to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Habitat: Found in dense mature coniferous or mixed upland and lowland forests, preferring river bottom or swampy woodlands. Requires nearby open country for hunting, using the thick, protected forests for daytime roosting.
Description: The body length ranges from 16-24 inches and the wingspan is 38-50 inches.  Adult males and females have similar coloring.  The Florida barred owl is a large gray-brown, bulky owl, with a puffy, dome-shaped head with liquid dark eyes and grayish facial disks.  Head, neck, and ruffed upper breast barred cross-wise in various shades of brown; rest of underparts vertically streaked in dark brown. Back is grayish brown with white spotting.  Immatures are initially covered with white down, later changing to buff with light barring covering entire body.
Life Expectancy: Barred Owls have been known to live up to 23 years in captivity and up to 10 years in the wild.
Sexual Maturity: Approximately 2 years
Diet: In the wild, they eat a diverse diet, preferring small mammals, such as mice, voles, wood rats, chipmunks, shrews, and squirrels.  In the Zoo, they are fed Bird of Prey diet, mice, rats and chicks.
Status: CITIES II
Behaviors:

The barred owl hunts mostly at dawn and dusk. Like other owls, the barred owl coughs up pellets of undigested hair and bone from its prey.  Owl pellets are often found beneath a favored roosting tree, indicating where an owl spends it daytime hours resting after a night of hunting.  Barred owls may occasionally be seen flying during daylight hours, particularly in late afternoon or on a dull, cloudy day.

Barred owls hunt by diving upon prey from an elevated perch, often flying or running after an unsuccessful catch.  They will take larger prey like opossum and small rabbits.  Also included in their diet is a variety of insects (beetles, crickets, moths), snakes, lizards, salamanders, frogs, small to medium birds (finches to quail), bats, and smaller owls.  They will even wade in shallow water for fish.

Nesting occurs from February-May.  Barred owls prefer natural tree cavities; they will use old hawk, squirrel, or crow nests and artificial nest boxes.  They often nest in close proximity to red-shouldered hawks with some evidence of communal or mixed clutch nesting.  Presence of large trees is a habitat requirement. Clutches average 2-4 eggs.
Adaptations: Barred owls are adaptable birds and have learned to live near man in patches of woods, even near large cities. They are noted for their large head and large eyes, which are fixed in the skull, making it necessary for them to rotate their heads in order to change their view.  Hearing is very acute and in many species the ears, which are crescent-shaped slits beneath the facial feathers, are placed asymmetrically (unevenly) on the head in order to better pick up sound.  Owls also have a distinctive facial disc that helps to direct sound towards the ears. The flight of an owl is almost noiseless due to tiny fringe-like structures found along the outer edge of each feather. This allows an owl to fly silently toward its prey without detection.  The barred owl is a master of vocalizations.  The call of this owl is often heard at night, resulting in some people wondering what the sound actually is.  The standard call is often translated as sounding much like "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?"  The barred owl makes a host of other sounds too, including squirrel-like barking, monkey-like hoots and yells, and even blood curdling screams!
Special Interest:

The barred pattern on its breast gives this species its common name.

It is the only owl in the eastern United States with brown eyes.

The rotation of the head of the barred owl is about 270 degrees of a circle, not 360 degrees. For comparison, a flexible human can turn the head less than 180 degrees.

Most deaths are likely to be related to man (shootings, automobile accidents, etc).  Great-horned owls are their only natural enemy.

The Jacksonville Zoo exhibits a subspecies, Strix varia georgica.
Folklore:

The belief that owls were wise originated during the times of King Arthur, when Merlin was always shown with an owl on his shoulder.  During the Middle Ages the owl became an important symbol of learning and intelligence.  Even today this myth persists, as evidenced by this anonymous nursery rhyme:

A wise old owl sat in an oak,

The more he saw the less he spoke,

The less he spoke, the more he heard,

Why can’t we all be like that wise old bird?

Owls are birds with poor reputations, despite the expression “a wise old owl.”   Perhaps this stems from the fact that the owl leads a nocturnal and solitary existence and that the night has long been associated with the time when darker forces and negative energies are present.  To see an owl by day is unlucky.  To experience one flying around the house at night signals that death is present.  This last superstition is thought to stem back to Roman times when the historian 'Pliny' in 77 AD was quoted as saying the bird was “most execrable and accursed” and always brought bad news.  Should an owl brush its wings against a window pain or be seen perching for a considerable length of time on a roof, it is traditionally believed that illness and even death is present within.

To look into an owl's nest is reputed to leave the observer with a sad and morose soul.

A dead owl has served many purposes including mixing some of the flesh with boar's grease as an ointment to ease the pain of gout.

Owl eggs were also once thought to help prevent epilepsy, bad sight (for obvious reasons) and, more amusingly, to bring the intoxicated back to their senses.
Conservation: Some general decline in east and southeast US populations is due to habitat destruction, but the expansion to western coastal Spotted Owl territory seems to keep the total population relatively stable.  Like other birds of prey, state and federal laws protect the barred owl.  It is illegal to possess any species of raptor alive or dead without special permits, or to knowingly kill or injure one in any way.
Jacksonville Zoo History: The first Florida barred owls arrived here sometime prior to June 1, 1971.
Revised: February 2008