- Details
- Written by Clyde McMillan-Gamber Clyde McMillan-Gamber
Red-shouldered hawks and barred owls are interesting, handsome counterparts of each other; both species live and raise young in wooded bottomlands, often near bodies of water.
Though these raptor species are from different families of birds, they have similar characteristics because of the habitat they share in the eastern United States, including here in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Both feathered predators are about the same size and prey on similar woodland creatures, including frogs, snakes, rodents, small birds, and larger insects, the red-shoulders by day and the owls at night.
And both these somewhat reclusive species are attractive in camouflaged ways. Adult red-shoulders are brown and mottled white on top and robin-red below. And they have black-and-white-striped tails.
Immatures are white underneath, with dark, lengthwise streaking. And both ages do have rufous shoulder patches.
Barred owls are brownish-gray all over with white markings on their heads, wings, backs, and tails. They also have darkly streaked throat ruffs, chests, and bellies. All that somber feathering blends them into their forest surroundings.
Barred owls also have large, dark eyes that are appealing to us humans. Those big eyes allow the owls’ pupils to dilate large enough so those birds can see well at night.
Both these feathered hunters, and all hawks and owls, swallow mice and other small prey whole and headfirst. The raptors’ stomachs digest everything they can but wrap fur and feathers around larger bones, forming pellets. Hawks and owls regurgitate those pellets, which fall to the ground below the raptors’ roosts.
Red-shouldered hawks begin courting in March, when we are most likely to hear the members of each pair repeatedly calling “keeee-aarrrr” to each other. Each pair of red-shoulders raises two or three young each spring into summer, in grass-lined stick cradles in treetops in bottomland woods.
Each pair of barred owls also rears two or three youngsters, but in tree hollows along waterways and impoundments, in woods, and in older suburban areas with many large trees in them.
Barred owls start courting early in March, when we are most likely to hear each pair’s intriguing hooting to each other, although these owls could hoot anytime, day and night, through the year.
Barred owls are sometimes called “eight-hooters” because of their classic calling that sounds like “who cooks for you, who cooks for you-all.” Consider yourself privileged if you hear those owls hooting.
The handsome red-shouldered hawks and barred owls are permanent residents here in southeastern Pennsylvania. They are not usually noticeable to most people, but they dwell, sparingly, in our wooded bottomlands.
Some readers, someday, may see or hear these lovely birds of prey in bottomland woods.