You may have owls in your yard and not even know it!
Many owls live in forests. Some live in deserts. Some owls live in grasslands. Some live in tundra. Some live in marshes and swamps. Some owls live at the edge of woods and grasslands. These last owls find rural farms and even residential backyards suitable for their homes.
Have you heard owls where you live? Would you like to know what species they are?
In the United States there are 5 owls regularly found in backyards. Residential yards with large trees are suitable for these owls. Such backyards remind these owls of their natural habitat at the woodland edge.
The 5 owls commonly found in town include:
- Great Horned Owl
- Barn Owl
- Eastern Screech-Owl
- Western Screech-Owl
- Barred Owl
We’ll talk about these individually below: where they live, what they look like, what they sound like, and what they eat. Then we’ll link to other articles describing how to attract them to your backyard, if you wish.
First, though, let’s discuss why you might want owls in your backyard. Then we’ll discuss why you might not want owls in your backyard. Then we’ll tell you how to look for signs that owls have been in your backyard.
The benefits of having owls in your backyard
First of all, why would you want owls in your backyard? Is it good to have an owl in your yard?
The best reason to have owls in your yard is because they eat mice and rats and other undesirable rodents. Further down this page I’ll discuss specifically what each species of owl eats. Controlling the population of disease carrying rodents is a huge benefit of having owls in your yard. If there aren’t any rats and mice outside your house, then there won’t be any inside!
Then, of course, owls are cool.
Owls are silent predators of the night. Their wing feathers have fluffy edges that help them fly without making a noise.
Owls have excellent hearing. They can locate and catch prey in total darkness, just by hearing mice rustling in the grass.
Owls have excellent eyesight. Their large eyes are in tubes, set forward-facing for binocular vision. Owls are unable to turn their eyes within their head. They must turn their head in order to see directly in front of them. Thus, unlike most other birds, owls have good depth-perception that allows them to judge distance accurately. They can see excellently at night, but can see just fine during the day, too.
Why you might not want owls in your backyard
If you have small pets that you let outside at night a Great Horned Owl might try to eat them. It is unlikely, but can happen. If your cat or dog is less than 12 pounds it is unlikely, but possible. Great Horned Owls are known to eat skunks. Striped skunks weight 4-9 pounds, sometimes a bit more.
Likewise, if you own poultry–chickens–Great Horned Owls might attack them if they are out at night. Really, though, fox and mink and other similar animals are more of a threat than owls to such livestock. And owls will eat those smaller weasels.
If you are raising rabbits, then you may not want larger owls in your yard.
Surprisingly, owls on occasion eat fish or crayfish. You probably want to keep owls away from your koi pond!
There is no reason to fear having small screech-owls in your yard, though.
How do you tell if owls are visiting your backyard?
Of course, if you see or hear an owl in your yard, that is pretty obvious. Most people detect owls by hearing them call at night, usually in the winter and spring. You may be awakened by owls calling at night. Barn Owls don’t call. And you might not recognize the whistles of screech-owls as an owl call at all.
Crows might alert you to an owl roosting in your trees. If they are dive-bombing a tree there is some kind of hawk or owl there. Check it out! Even birds such as chickadees and nuthatches mob small roosting owls. If the birds are all upset and agitated, there is something there they do not like. It could be an owl.
Great Horned Owls nest in old hawk or crow nests. They nest early–late December to March–before the hawks return to reuse their nests. Look for ear tufts sticking up from old hawk nests in the tops of bare late-winter trees.
Owls like to roost in dense trees, especially conifers, in winter. Look on the ground under trees for a lot of white wash! Scan up inside dense trees for any roosting owls snuggled next to the tree trunk.
Do you have larger oak or maple or similar trees with hollow branches or trunks? Look there for roosting or nesting owls. Owls nest in fruit trees and orchards, perhaps because trimming the limbs creates hollows.
Look on the ground for cast owl pellets. After eating small prey whole, owls cough up single roundish pellets of indigestible bone and fur. These owl pellets may be the best evidence of an owl visiting your backyard if you don’t actually see or hear any owls.
Owl pellets can be sterilized by wrapping in aluminum foil and baking in the oven at 325 degrees F for 40 minutes. Dissecting owl pellets to see what they have been eating can be a fun learning experience for kids. [Coyote scat is also fur and bones, but often seeds that owls don’t eat. The shape of coyote scat is long and pinched on one end as dog poo, but with fur.]
 |
|
Great Horned Owl
Photo by Greg Gillson
|
Great Horned Owls in the backyard
The “hoot owl” is familiar to most people. Their loud hooting carries far in the still night air. You may see them on utility poles at dusk.
Where do Great Horned Owls live?
Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus) are found throughout North America except the arctic tundra. They are common in all the lower 48 States.
These owls like second growth forests with adjacent open clearings and fields. But they are found in nearly all habitats. They occur in swamps, farmlands, forests, orchards, and deserts. In cities they can be found in wooded parks.
What do Great Horned Owls look like?
Great Horned Owls are large. They are slightly larger than a Red-tailed Hawk. They are about 18-25 inches long with a wingspan of 40-57 inches. Females are about 20% larger than males.
Their plumage is mottled in brown, gray, black, and white bars. They have a patch of white on the chest. Their large head has two tufts of feathers on the side that stick up. These are not ears. The ears are on the side of the head at the level of the eyes. They eyes and ears are set in a facial disk. Eyes are yellow.
The tail is short.
The feet are large and powerful with sharp claws.
What do Great Horned Owls sound like?
Great Horned Owls give loud hoots. The pattern is who hu-Hoo, who, who. The males voice is noticeably deeper than the females. Pairs often duet.
What do Great Horned Owls eat?
The diet of Great Horned Owls is highly varied. They eat rodents, squirrels, rabbits, skunks, other smaller owls, American coot, house cats, ducks, doves, and fish. They eat any smaller animals they find out at night, really.
How do you attract Great Horned Owls to your backyard?
Great Horned Owls roost and nest in large trees. They will use large nest boxes place in a tree, pole, or barn. For more information, please visit my page on attracting Great Horned Owls.
 |
|
Barn Owl
Photo by Greg Gillson
|
Barn Owls in the backyard
As their name suggests, Barn Owls frequently roost and nest in Barns. But that doesn’t mean they don’t nest in town, because they certainly do! Perhaps you’ve seen their pale ghost-like form wing across the road in your car’s headlights.
Where do Barn Owls live?
Barn Owls (Tyto alba) are found throughout the northern hemisphere, in both the New World and the Old World.
In Canada Barn Owls are found only in extreme south Ontario and southern British Columbia. In the United States they are found across the country. But they are very rare in the northern states.
They are quite rare to absent in Montana, North Dakota, northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New York.
What do Barn Owls look like?
Barn Owls are fairly large. They are 13-16 inches long. They have a wingspan of 40-49 inches.
Barn Owls are very pale. Males are usually a pale cinnamon and gray above and creamy below. They have a large round head with a white face. Females are a bit more colorful than males, rusty brown above, with more spotting on the breast. Eyes are dark.
In flight they have very long broad wings with shallow wingbeats interspersed with flat glides.
What do Barn Owls sound like?
Barn Owls are not very noisy. Their common call is a harsh hiss or shriek. This is usually given by the male as he flies around. It is often accompanied by bill clicks: shkreeesh, tic-tic-tic… fading or increasing in loudness slightly as the bird turns in flight toward you or away. You might mistake it for an engine belt slipping on a passing car. The sound doesn’t carry far. I hear it at night outside my window if the bird is flying down the street outside my home.
What do Barn Owls eat?
Barn owls eat primarily rodents at night. They eat mice, rats, voles. They also eat rabbits and other small mammals.
How do you attract Barn Owls to your backyard?
If you have a barn or tall dense trees you may be able to attract nesting owls using a nest box. For more information please see my article on attracting Barn Owls.
Eastern Screech-Owls in the backyard
Screech-owls are small owls found in trees in city parks and cemeteries. They have a low whistled trill call.
Where do Eastern Screech-Owls live?
Eastern Screech-Owls (Megascops asio) are resident in deciduous woodlands in the eastern United States. They are found from Montana to Connecticut in the north, south from Florida to Texas. They are absent in dense conifer forests. So they are rare or absent in northern Minnesota, northern Michigan, and Maine.
In Canada, they barely reach the southernmost parts of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.
What do Eastern Screech-Owls look like?
These small owls range from 6-1/2 to 10 inches long, bill tip to tail tip. They have a wingspan that ranges from 19-24 inches across.
They are short and stocky. They look neckless. Tufts of ornamental feathers stick up from over the eyes. They have a very short tail. Eyes are yellow.
Screech-Owls come in two main colors, either reddish or grayish. Otherwise, they are heavily barred and streaked with dark. They have large white spots on their scapulars and wing coverts.
Here’s a great video showing an Eastern Screech-Owl calling in the daytime!
What do Eastern Screech-Owls sound like?
The Eastern Screech-Owl has two calls. One is a quavering whistle or whinny that drops in pitch. A second call is a longer trill on one pitch.
What do Eastern Screech-Owls eat?
These small owls eat small birds and mammals such as rats, mice, squirrels, and rabbits, as you would expect. They also eat large insects, earthworms, crayfish, frogs, and lizards.
How do you attract Eastern Screech-Owls to your backyard?
Screech-Owls roost and nest in trees, but only need a few even in grasslands. Please see my article to find out how you can attract Screech-Owls to your backyard.
 |
|
Western Screech-Owl
Photo by Greg Gillson
|
Western Screech-Owls in the backyard
Western Screech-Owls are the western counterpart of the Eastern Screech-Owls. They were separated only a few years ago based more on their calls than on their plumage. For the most part they are just the same as the Eastern Screech-Owl except for voice. And voice is usually how you find them!
Where do Western Screech-Owls live?
Western Screech-Owls (Megascops kennicottii) live in western North America, from Alaska south to western Mexico. They live in British Columbia and western Montana southward to Colorado, New Mexico, and western Texas.
They live in deciduous and mixed woodlands, often along streams. But they also live in orchards, city parks, and residential areas with large trees.
What do Western Screech-Owls look like?
As with the Eastern Screech-Owl, these birds are 7-1/2 to 10 inches long. They have a wingspan of 22-24 inches.
Most birds are barred grayish with tufts sticking up on the sides of the head. The eyes are yellow. The crossbars on the breast are thinner and denser than Eastern Screech-Owl. The bill is blackish on the base rather than yellow-green. But these differences are unlikely to be useful in the field.
Some birds in the humid northwest coastal region are brownish, but none are reddish as are some Eastern Screech-Owls.
What do Western Screech-Owls sound like?
The calls of Western Screech-Owls includes a trill all on one pitch. The female of a pair gives a descending whinny. I think both these calls sound much like the Eastern Screech-Owl. However, the male territorial call is unique. It is a low hollow whistle of 7-10 notes on one pitch, starting slow and speeding up quickly to a trill: poo, poo, poo-poo-poo-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu.
What do Western Screech-Owls eat?
Western Screech-Owls eat a wide variety of small mammals and mice, birds, crayfish, shrews, worms, snails, and even flying insects.
How do you attract Western Screech-Owls to your backyard?
These owls will use trees with cavities drilled by woodpeckers or rot. They will also use nest boxes. Please see my article on attracting Screech-Owls to your backyard.
Barred Owls in the backyard
This medium-sized owl was formerly restricted to the eastern United States but is now found more widely. If you’ve got lots of large dense trees in your backyard you may host this species of owl.
Where do Barred Owls live?
Barred Owls (Strix varia) live year round in conifer and mixed woods, especially in river bottoms and swamplands.
Barred Owls in the United Stated occur from Minnesota to Texas and eastward to the Atlantic in all states. They also occur across the south of eastern Canada and the middle of Manitoba and Alberta. They have recently expanded throughout British Columbia and Southeast Alaska southward since the 1980’s through Washington and Oregon to northwestern California.
What do Barred Owls look like?
These larger owls are bigger than Barn Owls but smaller than Great Horned Owls. They are about 17-20 inches long. They have a wingspan of 39-43 inches, tip to tip.
Barred Owls have brown bars across the upper chest but streaks on the lower breast and belly. They have white spots across the dark brown back and wing feathers. The head is large and round. The eyes are dark. The bill is pale.
What do Barred Owls sound like?
This owl gives a variety of hoots and screams and cackles. The signature territorial call of Barred Owl is a very loud hooting that sounds like: Who cooks for you? (pause) Who cooks for you-all? I’m always surprised when I hear this call in the southwest desert–given by the White-winged Dove!
What do Barred owls eat?
Barred Owls eat squirrels, mice, small and medium-sized birds, crayfish, frogs, lizards, snakes, and fish!
How do you attract Barred Owls to your backyard?
Barred Owls are a bit more wary around people than the other owls here. Nevertheless, they reside in wooded canyons and parks near rivers. They naturally nest in large trees 20-40 feet up. But if you have mature forest surrounding your yard you may be able to entice Barred Owls to nest with a special nest box. Please see my article on how to attract Barred Owls to your backyard.
Wrapping Up
Our fascination with owls goes beyond their stunning looks and unique abilities. There’s a whole tapestry of reasons why these feathered friends captivate us:
1. Their mysterious aura
Owls, with their nocturnal habits and piercing gaze, inhabit the world we only glimpse in shadows. This shrouded existence lends them an air of mystery and intrigue. They become enigmatic creatures, whispering secrets from the darkness.
2. Their captivating features
From the wise, oversized eyes to the feathery ear tufts and silent flight, owls are visually stunning. Their big heads and wide eyes evoke a childlike innocence, while their hooked beaks and powerful talons remind us of their predatory prowess. This duality – cute and fierce, familiar yet strange – is endlessly compelling.
3. Their symbolic power
Throughout history, owls have been associated with various meanings. In many cultures, they represent wisdom, knowledge, and guardianship. In others, they are seen as harbingers of death or magic. This rich symbolism adds another layer of fascination, inviting us to interpret their presence and glean deeper meaning.
4. Their remarkable adaptations
Owls possess incredible capabilities that we can only admire. Their silent flight, made possible by specially structured feathers, allows them to stalk prey undetected. Their exceptional hearing, with independently rotating ears, can pinpoint a mouse’s squeak from meters away. These adaptations, a testament to nature’s ingenuity, spark a sense of wonder and respect.
5. Their connection to nature
Owls, as apex predators, play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem balance. Seeing them in the wild reminds us of our interconnectedness with nature and the delicate web of life. They become ambassadors of the wilderness, sparking a desire to protect their habitats and the creatures they share them with.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the superstition about owls in the backyard?
Superstitions about owls in the backyard vary greatly depending on culture and location. Here are some of the most common:
Bad Omen: In some cultures, seeing an owl in your backyard is considered a bad omen, foretelling misfortune, illness, or even death. This belief might stem from their nocturnal habits and association with the unseen world.
Symbol of Wisdom: However, other cultures view owls as symbols of wisdom, knowledge, and good luck. Seeing one near your home could be interpreted as a message to tap into your own inner wisdom or a sign of impending positive change.
Messenger of Change: Owls are also seen as messengers in some cultures. Their presence could signify a transition period in your life, urging you to prepare for upcoming changes.
How long do owls stay in one place?
The length of time an owl stays in one place depends on several factors, including the owl species, its age, and the availability of resources in its territory. Here’s a breakdown:
Nesting sites:
- Most owls use the same nesting site for multiple years, sometimes even for their entire lives. For example, barn owls can reuse a nesting site for up to 18 years! This helps them raise their young successfully by utilizing familiar surroundings and established hunting grounds.
- Young owls typically disperse from their natal territory after fledging, venturing out to find their own homes and mates.
Home ranges:
- Many owls establish and defend a home range, an area where they hunt and roost. The size of this range can vary greatly depending on the species and abundance of prey. Some smaller owls, like screech owls, might have home ranges as small as a few acres, while larger owls, like great horned owls, can have ranges of several square miles.
- Owls typically remain within their home ranges for extended periods, sometimes even their entire lives. They are adapted to the specific resources and environment within their territories.
Where do owls go during the day?
During the day, most owls take refuge in various locations to sleep and conserve energy for their nighttime hunting activities. Here are some common spots you might find them snoozing:
Trees: This is the most likely place to find owls during the day. They often choose sheltered branches, tucked away amongst dense foliage for camouflage. Some specific examples include:
Large conifers: These trees provide excellent cover and protection from predators like hawks and eagles. Look for owls perched high up near the trunk, especially in evergreen species like pines and firs.
Cavities: Hollow trunks or old woodpecker holes offer cozy dens for smaller owl species like screech owls.
Abandoned nests: These structures provide readily available roosting spots for owls who don’t build their own nests, like barn owls.
Other Sheltered Locations: Depending on the species and habitat, owls can also seek refuge in other places, such as:
Cliffs and rock faces: Great horned owls often roost on ledges and crevices in rocky areas.
Caves and other natural cavities: Burrowing owls, as their name suggests, dig their own burrows in the ground for nesting and roosting.
Man-made structures: Some owls readily adapt to human environments and might roost in barns, abandoned buildings, or even tree boxes provided by birdwatchers.
