Barred Owl
Strix Varia
The Barred Owl’s hooting call, “Who
cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?” is a classic sound of old forests and
treed swamps. But this attractive owl, with soulful brown eyes and
brown-and-white-striped plumage, can also pass completely unnoticed as it flies
noiselessly through the dense canopy or snoozes on a tree limb. Originally a
bird of the east, during the twentieth century it spread through the Pacific
Northwest and southward into California.
The
adult is 16–25 in long with a 38–49 in wingspan. Weight in this
species is 1.10 to 2.31 lb. It has a pale face with dark rings around the
eyes, a yellow beak and brown eyes. It is the only typical owl of the eastern
Americas which has brown eyes; all others have yellow eyes.
John James Audubon illustrated
the barred owl in Birds of America (published, London 1827-38) as Plate
46 where it is shown threatening a grey squirrel just like this picture here. Note the squirrel in the bottom left.
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