Episode 39: Barred Owl – Voice of the Wild

This is Illinois Extension’s Voice of the Wild. A new wild voice in just a moment, so find someplace quiet, take a deep breath, and enjoy.

Who cooks for you? That’s the widely used mnemonic for this owl’s goofy call. It’s easy to imitate with your voice, and some can even get a bird to respond to their imitation. (though if you do this, please do so sparingly as anyone with a phone knows; answering all those unknown and pointless call would add substantially to the stress of everyday life

In any case, callback isn’t usually necessary to find this owl; They are perhaps the easiest of the common owls to find; not only are they large; only a little smaller than the great horned owl - they’re also fairly active during the day and more likely to roost in deciduous trees (which makes them much easier to see.) Take a stroll through a bottomland forests in the early morning or late evening and You might hear a pair of them Caterwauling and counter-singing.

This is the barred owl (Strix varia) from the owl family Strigidae

The barred owl’s eyes are deep brown or even black. and like other owls, its retinas are retro-reflective; they have a special layer that reflects incoming light back towards its source, this improves nightvision and has a side effect of making the eye appear to glow in the dark when looking towards a bright source of light.

In 1966, In a small town in west virginia, a startled barred owl, was likely what frightened the couple that would go on to describe an encounter with six foot flying creature that had enormous claws and glowing eyes. The story of that encounter, along with copycat sightings and a bridge collapse the creature was said to be an omen of, went on to become the founding myths of one of America's most popular cryptids; the mothman.

Now the barred owl is only 20 inches tall, but when you’re in the dark and frightened it can be hard to judge those kinds of things. Lucky for us the barred owl has no special capacity to portend engineering disasters, only a goofy call and penchant for hunting in dark and swampy forests. Here’s the barred owl again.

Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for our bird sounds. And thank you for tuning in to learn a new wild voice with Illinois Extension.