Colleen
About two years ago I asked my brother to build me some bird houses for my backyard. I got some patterns off the internet for different breeds of birds. While surfing, I saw a pattern for an owl box. I love owls but didn't think I could get one to use a box in my backyard. I asked my brother to build one anyway, which he did. Well just under 2 years later, I have an owl! :D
Gray Phase Screech Owl (Eastern Screech Owl, gray phase meaning coloring)
This owl is pretty docile and doesn't fly away when I get close to it. While I was taking pictures of him, he came out on the perch to see what I was doing, unfortunately that picture came out extremely blurry. The my dog ran up and scared him so I couldn't get another picture. I'm just wondering if anyone here knows owls and can verify if this is a saw-whet owl (I know it's not the best of pictures). He is very small and looks to be just 8" in length.
11 Answers
Colleen
Update....I sent this last picture to my mother and she looked in her bird book and I believe she has found exactly what type of owl he is. I agree with her that this is a Gray Phase Screech Owl. They are small owls like this one is. Great horned owls grow to be 18-25 inches in length. I'm pretty certain this owl is full grown and only about 8" in length.
Picture of a Gray Phase Screech Owl from the internet:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/119/305955664_b7bc488e30.jpg
| 13 years ago. Rating: 2 | |
@ dwayne..Actually screech owls have a soft call. I think I put in a sound chip on the first page. I looked at photos in google pictures and they look like my two. The male is a redish-brown phase and the female is a gray phase.
Eastern Screech Owl
Adult (gray phase) - facial disks dusky white with fine gray-brown mottling, bordered by black. The iris is bright yellow and the bill is gray-green, with tufts of bristly feathers around its base. Overall gray-brown, with gray narrow vertical stripes, bars, and spots on underparts, and barred wings and tail - legs light cinnamon buff, and toes are yellow.
Adult (red phase) - similar pattern to gray phase except cinnamon instead of gray - face plain light cinnamon - whitish superciliary and loral plumage.
Juvenile (gray phase) - similar to adults but indistinct stripes and bars more patterned - many feathers tipped with white Juvenile (red phase) - grayish brown, but distinctly rufescent colour overall - bars and stripes less distinct than adults.
Size: Female average Length:23cm (9.2") Wingspan:56cm (22") Weight:208g (7.3oz)
Male average Length:21cm (8.2") Wingspan:54 cm (21") Weight:200 g (7oz)
The top picture is from the internet. The second one is the male in my yard.
last pic is a great horned owl
| 13 years ago. Rating: 1 | |
But mine is only about 12" and the male was breeding the female so he is an adult. She has created a nest in the box by pulling her feathers so she's acting like an adult too. The great horned owl gets to be approx. 22" long if I remember right. Also, the sound chip of a screech owl is the sound they make. I heard a sound chip for the great horned owl and that's definitely not the call of my owls.
look at how much more pronounced ton you bird the tuffs of feathers obove the eyes are on you bird big diff.
Just taken. I haven't seen the male for 3 nights. The female is still here though.
| 13 years ago. Rating: 1 | |
I've been as close as a foot away and they just look at me without a care in the world. I almost reached out to see if I could touch this one tonight but then I decided to wait a bit longer to give her some more time to get use to me.
Thanks Roger. I'm really enjoying having them around and being able to watch them and even talk to them. The male will watch me and listen when i speak, the female ignores me, lol Oh well.
I live in CT. Amazingly I live in a pretty residential area for all the wildlife I get in my backyard.
wow that's an awesome photo, i LOVE those eyes, so fierce and fired up. where do you live, where i live owls are the last birds to be reached.
backflipper202
Darci13
