Learn what a barred owl looks like and what their call sounds like. Plus learn where you can spot these large owls in North America.
How to Identify a Barred Owl
Updated on Dec. 17, 2024
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What Does a Barred Owl Look Like?
Barred owls are large brownish and white striped or “barred” raptors with no visible feather tufts on their heads. Unlike many of its relatives with yellow eyes, the barred owl has dark eyes, which enhance its mysterious appearance.
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Barred Owl Call
The classic “whoo cooks for you, whoo cooks for you all” is the sound you’ll hear most often from barred owls, but they make any number of hoots, shrieks, cackles and caterwauls too.
Bird sounds courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
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Barred Owl Nesting Habits
Large nest boxes can accommodate them, but they’ll also nest in natural cavities. Occasionally these birds take over a stick nest from another raptor.
Did You Know: When choosing a place to raise their young, barred owl pairs scope out sites for up to a year before they decide move in.
Meet the long-eared owl and the short-eared owl.
Range and Habitat
The barred owl is one species whose distribution expanded throughout the 20th century. The species was predominantly found in the East, especially in southeastern swamps and woods.
Over the last 100 years, barred owls have pushed west across Canada and then south into the Pacific Northwest. This is good news for barred owls but problematic for the closely related, and more passive, spotted owl.
But barred owls aren’t always the dominant bird—great horned owls can be a major predator on barred owls, where their ranges overlap.
Until recently, an isolated population of barred owls in Mexico was considered a subspecies, but in 2021 researchers determined these birds were a separate species now known as cinereous owls.
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Are Barred Owls Invasive?
“Here in Washington state, the invasive barred owl is taking over the habitat of our northern spotted owl. The local wildlife authorities have decided to cull barred owls to protect the spotted owls. Why can’t these invasive owls just be caught and returned to their habitat east of the Rockies instead of culling them?” asks Birds & Blooms reader Sharal Whitecliff.
Birding experts Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman say, “Of course the idea of culling one owl to protect another is disturbing and controversial. But capturing the barred owls and moving them across the country would be extremely expensive, probably costing many thousands of dollars per individual.
Some probably would die in transit, and releasing them back in their original eastern range could cause more problems. The best barred owl territories in the East are already occupied, and any translocated owls released there would most likely be driven out to marginal habitats where they might not survive. The conflict is a problem with no easy solutions.”
What Foods Do Barred Owls Eat?
As expected for a species with such a widespread distribution, barred owls’ diets vary based on their habitat. Their feasts can include anything from crayfish, fish and frogs to small mammals and birds.
Next, learn how to identify barn owls.
About the Experts
Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman are the official bird experts for Birds & Blooms. They are the creators of the Kaufman Field Guide series and they lead birding trips all over the world.
Sources
- All About Birds – Barred Owl Overview
