BELTRAN: Owls are famous for their stealth, with feathers that barely make a sound. Even so, BirdNote’s Michael Stein has some tips on how you can spot one.

BirdNote®
City Owls
Written by Bob Sundstrom

You don't need to travel to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – or even to a remote forest – to see owls. Some owls – including big birds like Barred Owls and Great Horned Owls – live in the city. Owls are hunters, and there’s a lot to eat in the city — like rats or even squirrels!

Great Horned Owls favor urban parks, cemeteries, and botanical gardens, places with big trees. They are huge owls with pointy ear-like tufts, and they roost during the day in trees and hunt at night over open areas nearby. Look for something shaped like an enormous house cat sitting upright on a branch. At night, listen for these mellow hoots:

Barred Owls sound rowdy by comparison.

The Barred Owl also likes parks, especially with open spaces below the trees, because it hunts mostly inside the woods. It’s big, too, with a smoothly rounded head, and it sometimes perches down low where it’s easy to spot.

We hope you can find owls near where you live. Take a pair of binoculars, so you can watch them at a distance that’s comfortable for you – and for the owl.

I'm Michael Stein.

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