WarbleMost hooting in a US yard comes from one of two owls. A soft, deep, stuttered hoo h'HOO, hoo, hoo is a Great Horned Owl. A louder, rhythmic who cooks for you, who cooks for you all is a Barred Owl. If the sound is a descending whinny or a long soft trill, it is an Eastern Screech-Owl; in the West, a run of low whistles that speeds up like a dropped ping-pong ball is a Western Screech-Owl. A drawn-out raspy scream with no hoot in it at all is a Barn Owl.
Match the sound first
Start with the sound, not the bird. These five owls cover nearly every night call people report from a yard, a park or a campsite.
| What you hear | Likely owl | When | Habitat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Three to eight deep, soft hoots in a stuttered pattern | Great Horned Owl | All year; heaviest in the months before late-January breeding | Almost anywhere with trees: forest, farm woodlots, suburbs, city parks |
| Eight loud notes, who cooks for you, who cooks for you all; sometimes a wild cackling | Barred Owl | All year; peaks late January to early April, mostly between 6 pm and 6 am | Mature woods, river bottoms, swamps, big-tree parks and neighborhoods |
| A descending whinny like a tiny horse, or a long soft trill on one pitch | Eastern Screech-Owl | Resident all year | East of the Rockies, any yard with big trees and some open ground |
| Six to eight low whistles that speed up like a bouncing ball | Western Screech-Owl | Resident all year | The West: canyons, streamside groves, desert mesquite, wooded suburbs |
| A long, harsh scream or hiss; never a hoot | Barn Owl | All year | Open lowland country: farms, barns, grassland, cliffs, small towns |
Great Horned Owl: the classic hoot
This is the owl of movies and Halloween. The call is a set of three to eight deep hoots with a built-in rhythm, often written as hoo h'HOO, HOO, HOO: a short note, a stressed pair, then two even notes trailing off. It is not loud so much as low, and nothing else in the night is pitched that deep.
Great Horned Owls live in nearly every habitat with trees, from deep forest to city parks and ordinary suburbs. They often take over an old nest built by a hawk, a crow or a squirrel, which is one reason a pair can settle into a neighborhood without anyone noticing until the hooting starts.
Barred Owl: who cooks for you
The Barred Owl's main call is a phrase of eight accented hoots that birders hear as who cooks for you, who cooks for you all, with the last note dropping away. Some people still call it the Old Eight-Hooter. It is louder and more emphatic than a Great Horned Owl, and the phrase has a clear beginning and end rather than a slow string of hoots.
The Barred Owl also makes the strangest sounds in the eastern woods. When two or more get going, the hoots break down into cackles, caws, gurgles and cat-like screams that birders call caterwauling. People hear it and assume something is being murdered. A disturbed bird will also give a buzzy hiss and click its bill.
Barred Owls want big trees and, ideally, water: bottomland hardwoods, wooded swamps and river corridors. They also do well in large parks and older neighborhoods with mature trees. Once an eastern bird, the species crossed the continent and reached Washington by 1965, Oregon by 1972 and northern California by 1976, so a Pacific Northwest yard can now have this call too.
Screech-owls: a whinny, a trill, a bouncing ball
Despite the name, screech-owls do not screech. The Eastern Screech-Owl makes two sounds. One is a quavering whinny that slides downward, close enough to a small horse that people describe it that way without prompting. The other is a soft trill held on a single pitch for a few seconds, more purr than whistle. Both are quiet, and both come from a bird about the size of a robin, with short ear tufts and plumage that is usually gray but can be rufous or brown.
This is the owl most likely to be living in a suburban yard without anyone knowing. It takes any place with a few large trees and some open ground, including city parks and shaded streets across the eastern half of the country.
West of the Great Plains the Western Screech-Owl takes over, and its voice is different enough to tell apart by ear. The main call is a series of six to eight low whistles that start slow and speed up, often dropping a little in pitch at the end, the rhythm of a ping-pong ball settling onto a table. It also gives a quick series on one pitch, and mated pairs sing in duet. Look for it in wooded canyons, streamside groves in dry country, desert mesquite and saguaro stands, and wooded suburbs from the Pacific coast to the Rockies.
Barn Owl: the scream, not a hoot
If the sound is a long, harsh, hissing scream, you have a Barn Owl, and you can stop looking for a hooter. Barn Owls do not hoot at all. Their vocabulary is hisses, screams, guttural grunts and bill snapping, and young in the nest give a fast clicking that sounds like grackles.
Barn Owls are pale, medium-sized owls, roughly 13 to 16 inches long, with a white heart-shaped face and dark eyes. They live in open and semi-open lowland country: farms, grassland, cliffs, small towns and the barns that gave them their name. They occur across most of the lower 48 states, but they are birds of open ground, so a scream from a wooded city yard deserves a second listen.
When owls call most
Owls are heard most in the cold months, and the reason is the calendar. Great Horned Owls breed in late January or early February, and the months of hooting before that are courtship and territory defense. That is why a fall or early-winter night is the best time to hear the deep hoots. The young that follow stay near their parents until the next breeding season.
Barred Owls run a little later. Their calling peaks between late January in the South and early April in the North, and it is heaviest between 6 pm and 6 am, though a Barred Owl will answer a whistled imitation in the middle of the afternoon. Screech-owls and Barn Owls are year-round residents across their ranges, and a mild night in any month can bring a whinny or a scream.
Wind matters more than the hour. On a still night a Barred Owl's call carries well over half a mile.
How to settle it
Step outside, stand still for two full minutes, and listen for the shape of the phrase: a stuttered string of low hoots, an eight-note question, a whinny, a bouncing ball or a scream. If the bird keeps calling, open Warble and let it listen for a phrase or two. Owls are easy to hear and nearly impossible to see, which makes them satisfying cards to catch, and a Great Horned Owl on your own roof beats most daytime birds.
Questions people ask
Why do I hear owls more in winter?
Because that is courtship season. Great Horned Owls breed in late January or early February after months of hooting, and Barred Owl calling peaks from late January into early April.
Do owls hoot during the day?
Sometimes. Barred Owls call in daylight, especially when a person imitates them or plays a recording, and their peak hours still run from dusk to dawn. Most other owl calls come after dark.
What owl sounds like a screaming woman?
Usually a Barn Owl, whose voice is a long harsh scream with no hoot in it. Barred Owls also produce cat-like screams and cackling when a pair or family gets excited.
What owl sounds like a horse?
The Eastern Screech-Owl. Its main call is a quavering whinny that slides down in pitch, and it also gives a soft, even trill. It is a robin-sized owl that is at home in suburban yards with big trees.
Sources
- Missouri Department of Conservation, Field Guide: Great Horned Owl. mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/great-horned-owl
- Wikipedia: Barred owl (vocalizations, habitat, range expansion). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barred_owl
- National Audubon Society, Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Screech-Owl. www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/eastern-screech-owl
- National Audubon Society, Guide to North American Birds: Western Screech-Owl. www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/western-screech-owl
- National Audubon Society, Guide to North American Birds: American Barn Owl. www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/american-barn-owl