Top photos by Pamela Cohen; bottom photo by Jack Kotz
Left/right: Great horned owls
with the owlets hatching about two days apart and the oldest
owlets often receiving the most food.
Owls dine on a variety of prey, including rodents, birds,
insects, and amphibians. Some even eat other owls. Since all
of Kiawah’s owls enjoy munching on rodents, such as rats
and voles, they provide a valuable service by keeping these
populations under control on our Island. Before eating,
they usually crush their prey to death and then, depending
upon the size of the catch, either devour it whole or rip it up.
Parts they can’t digest end up as pellets that owls regurgitate.
Examination of these pellets can provide ornithologists with
valuable information on the diets of specific species.
The owl family is divided into two broad
categories: barn owls (Tyto alba) and “typical
owls” (almost all others). Kiawah residents
include barn owls, as well as three species
of “typical owls”—barred owls (Strix varia),
great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) and
Eastern screech owls (Megascops asio).
Fortunately, the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List
classifies all of these in the “least concern”
conservation status, though Federal and State law
prohibits trapping or killing any owls.
Barn owls have a distinctive, white, heart-shaped facial
disk with dark eyes that make them easy to distinguish from
other typical owls. They also sport more slender and tapered
bodies, with proportionally longer legs, than other owls. Their
appetite for rodents makes them valuable to farmers. A family
of these voracious eaters consumes several thousand rodents
during a nesting season. While they received their name for
their propensity to nest in abandoned buildings, including
barns, the favorite hunting habitat of these nocturnal birds is
open grasslands and marshlands. With these areas declining
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in the state, the South Carolina Wildlife Action Plan lists barn
owls as a species of conservation concern in the state.
Barred owls are commonly found in wooded areas
throughout the Eastern United States. These large (up to
19.7 inches long) owls are crepuscular, primarily searching
for their food at dawn or dusk. They may also hunt during
daytime on overcast days or when raising owlets. Relatively
small feet limit the size of the prey they can capture—they
feast on rodents, birds, frogs, and fish, for which they
sometimes wade into the water.
Also crepuscular, great horned owls are somewhat larger
than barred owls, with a length of up to just over two
feet. They prefer wooded areas but can be found
anywhere that food supplies are abundant and
are common throughout North America.
These fierce hunters can capture and eat large
prey including ospreys, falcons, and barred
owls. Due to their remarkable hunting
ability, great horned owls have the most
diverse diet of any owls and even eat skunks.
Only slightly larger than a blue jay, Eastern
screech owls are the smallest owls living on
Kiawah. With large heads, prominent ear tufts, and
yellow eyes and beak, they feature a classic “owl” appearance.
Their call is not a “screech,” as their name implies, but a
high-pitched whinny, or sometimes a warbling sound. These
nocturnal birds can successfully live in suburban areas as long
as there is sufficient tree cover and are the easiest of Kiawah’s
owls to attract to our yards.
Though it is hard to catch a glimpse of our owl neighbors,
we may hope to hear them when dark settles in, when their
eerie calls float through the night and remind us how lucky
we are to have these amazing, mysterious creatures living
among us. NK
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