<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="65001"%> Eastern Screech Owls
Willowbrook Wildlife Center Raptor Volunteer Interpreteres

Eastern Screech Owl
Megascops asio

 

 

 

 

 

Education birds representing this species: Ayasha (Alumni: Otis) - species also represented in Exhibit Room

Page at "All About Birds" web site at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Interesting Facts:

  • Often mates for life
  • Does not actually screech
  • All owls have feathers on their feet and it seems they serve many purposes - see June 5th update for details.

Physical Dimensions:

  • wing span ~20 - 24 inches
  • weight ~4 - 8 ounces (females slightly larger)

Prey

  • insects
  • earthworms
  • songbirds
  • rodents
  • crayfish

Hunting Techniques:

  • sit and wait

Range:

  • Eastern half of North America
  • Found in habitats with trees (including suburban areas)
  • Minimal migration, if any

Eastern Screech Owl Distribution Map

Color:

  • no sexual dimorphism (when males and females differ in coloring). Sexual dimorphism is unusual in raptors.
  • Screech owls have red and gray morphs (Otis is gray morph, Ayasha is red morph). Red is found more in pine forests, gray is found more in deciduous forest. Red is genetically dominant, but scientists believe gray somehow provides an advantage to survival and reproduction - that's why there are still so many of them. This advantage may be directly related to its gray coloring, OR gray coloring is linked to another genetically-based quality that is the actual advantage - scientists are working on that question. Screech owls are in the process of becoming two seperate species - eventually in the distant future the red morph will likely be one species, and the gray another. For now, different colored mates are the exception, not the rule, so usually an entire clutch will be the same color as both their parents. When red and gray DO mate, the offspring can be the intermediate brown phase. See FAQs for a suggested answer for questions related to this.

Reproduction:

  • Mates for life
  • Does not build a nest - lays eggs on surface in unlined cavitities of hollow trees, sometimes abandoned holes of flickers/woodpeckers.
  • "Builds" nest in February-April
    4 - 5 eggs
    26-30 days of incubation
    Fledged at 28-30 days
    Independent of parents at 8-10 weeks

Conservation:

  • No conservation issues - widespread and common