Who Cooks the Soup?
BIRD BRAINS: Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends (ISBN: 978-0-7267-8755-5)
by
Budd Titlow
During bird-watching trips, the lead biologist always has the most fun imitating the ethereal, Who cooks the soup, who cooks for you—ALL? back-and-forth caterwauling of barred owls that often resounds through forested wetlands in broad daylight. The call never fails to get the attention of the trip’s participants for two reasons. First, the words are quite comical and really sound like what this raptor (bird of prey) is saying. Plus most people are flat-out surprised to learn that owls can be active while the sun is up.
As nonmigratory residents, barred owls are commonly found throughout eastern North America, from southern Canada down to Florida. Plus they have been gradually expanding their range across western Canada and down into states of the Pacific Northwest. This is of particular concern for the federally threatened northern spotted owl, which has been waging serious warfare with Pacific forest managers and loggers for more than twenty years. The problem is that barred owls readily outcompete their spotted cousins, potentially placing the local populations in even greater jeopardy.
A Barred Owl (Strix varia) hunts during broad daylight from a wintry perch in a birch tree.
Back in the eastern US, the overall owl situation is much more stable. Barred owls often nest in large tree cavities drilled out by pileated woodpeckers. They may also take over an old nesting site previously built by a red-shouldered hawk or Cooper’s hawk. Because of this, good barred owl habitat must feature some mature trees which are at least 25 feet tall and two feet in diameter-at-breast-height (dbh).
Owls in general have few natural predators, although feral cats may capture and kill unwary, young owls. Curiously, the number one predator of barred owls is the slightly larger great horned owl.
Barred owls are opportunistic predators, subsisting primarily on meadow voles, field mice, and shrews. But when the opportunity arises they will also take rats, squirrels, rabbits, bats, moles, opossums, raccoons, mink, weasels, and occasionally other birds, including a variety of songbirds and even waterfowl. From time to time, they even wander into shallow water for a quick bath and meal of frogs, salamanders, and fish.
With some amazing adaptations, barred owls are coldly-efficient silent assassins. In most animals, having offset ears is a bad thing—likely some sort of a birth defect. But for barred owls having one ear higher and the other ear more forward is a huge plus. This “crooked hearing” means that the sounds of a mouse reach one ear a split second before they reach the other, allowing the owl’s brain to precisely calculate the location of its next victim. Like all owls, barred owls have the unique ability to fly on silent wings. Their body feathers are velvety-soft and thick which absorbs most of the sound of flight and their primary feathers have soft, comb-like edges which break up the whooshes of each wing beat.
Recent studies have shown that barred owls are moving into suburban—and even urban—areas which have only a few old trees for nesting cavities. This increases the chances for making another favorite find of birders everywhere—an owl pellet. Owl pellets contain the coughed-up, undigested remains—bones, teeth, and fur—of a barred owl’s meals and examining one always tells you what’s been on the menu lately.
Text excerpted from book: Bird Brains: Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends, written by Budd Titlow and published by Lyons Press (an imprint of Globe Pequot Press).
Photo Caption & Credit: © artcphotos/Shutterstock.com
Author’s bio: For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees. Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America — provides the answers we all seek and need.Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
This Birding Life 