Eastern Screech-Owl

Eastern Screech-Owl

Megascops asio
(Strigidae)

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8.5 inches long. The Eastern Screech-Owl is a small nocturnal predatory bird with a large rounded head with ear tufts and yellow eyes. It is able to flatten the ear tufts so that it may have a rounded head look occasionally. It has dense streaking in the underparts with finer barring. Birds may have a rufous or gray plumage.

The Eastern Screech-Owl is probably a resident in the Forest.

The Eastern Screech-Owl nests in tree cavities in wooded environments. It readily adapts to people and sometimes nests in human-made cavities such as bird boxes. It is often the most common or only avian predator in wooded suburban and urban habitats.The Screech-Owl song is a series of melancholy whistled whinny descending in pitch. There is also a drawn out tremolo whistled trill on one pitch.

 

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