Four Calls of the Barred Owl and Their Meaning
Alfred Maley
For years authors have described the riotous laughter of the Barred Owl and the Who Cooks call without attempting to explain their meaning. Bent describes one really helpful call as ho-ho-to-wháh-ow… Here are four easy-to-remember calls with what I believe is their meaning.
#1 I’VE GOT FOOD - the Huff-n-Puff call. This call is given by the male when he brings food to the incubating or brooding female on the nest. It consists of a series of HUFF calls followed by a two syllable WHOAH. The female comes from the nest to receive the food (and visit the bathroom?) and then she does the Puff part - several Attaboys for the male with instructions to get back out there and find more. This call is audible maybe a hundred yards from the nest. (I know this to be the purpose of this call since I have just given the male a mouse and he’s taken it to the nest area.)
The female also gives this call when the young have fledged but are still in the nest area. She gives the call very quietly and the young hiss in response. She then decides which owlet is the hungriest and where it is, and feeds it. Like females everywhere, she gets no attaboys, but perhaps a burp from the owlet. (Again, I know this because I just gave her a mouse.)
#2 I’M HUNGRY - BRING FOOD - the Lazy Sora call. The female gives this call, which sounds like a lazy Sora rail, when she is stuck in the nest and hasn’t been fed by the male in too long. While the females have to have fat reserves in order to contemplate nesting, they depend on the males for almost all their food until the young can be left alone in the nest. It is loud, and can be heard by a human at 100 yards or more, by an owl, much farther. She calls about every minute or so, frequently in the daytime, for a half hour or more, especially during the months of March and April.
The young owlets also will give this call when they disperse and stop hissing, about two months after fledging. They call much softer, but it is the same Sora-like call. I heard one last week that called about every minute from 9:30 PM to 11 PM. You would not take it for an owl, but it is.
#3 CONTACT - I’m Here, Where Are You? Like teenagers with cell phones, these owls keep track of one another with a single downward slurred WHOAH, given only at night, that announces the location of one member of a pair. (I’m guessing the female.) The call is repeated every 10-15 seconds until a response is heard, or the calling bird gives up. Sometimes there is a response in the form of a Who Cooks call, or perhaps in the form of a call that I can’t hear but owls can. I hear this call after sundown and before dawn; it may tell one member of the pair where it is hunting so that the other member can hunt in a different spot, who knows?
#4 WHO COOKS FOR YOU - Party Time or Territorial Defense. I have heard this call after a male has brought food to the nest. I have heard this call after the eggs hatch (near silence reigns during incubation). I have heard this call given by (likely) the male at the edges of his territory, perhaps to run off intruders. I have no idea exactly what it means.
Al Maley
Hampstead, NH