Barred owl

Barred owls eat mice, squirrels, frogs and other small animals.

Some even catch fish!

Barred owls mostly eat small mammals: many mice and other small rodents, and also squirrels, including flying squirrels, rabbits, shrews and opossums. They also catch birds, frogs, salamanders, snakes, lizards and insects, and animals that live in water, such as crayfish, crabs and fish.

A barred owl usually watches from a perch, then swoops down and grabs its prey with its talons. It may also fly low through the forest, or hover before it drops.

Audubon describes a diet of mostly small mammals: many mice and other small rodents, squirrels (including flying squirrels), rabbits, opossums and shrews, plus birds, frogs, salamanders, snakes, lizards, some insects, and aquatic animals such as crayfish, crabs and fish. The ADW account (2000) calls it a generalist carnivore taking prey from small mammals up to the size of rabbits to birds as large as grouse, always prey it can swallow whole, and reports owls catching fish from perches and by wading in shallow water.

It hunts by night or day, perhaps most at dawn and dusk (Audubon), mainly from a perch, swooping down to seize prey in its talons, but also by flying low through the forest, and it may hover before dropping onto prey.

A barred owl mother and father stay together.

They call to each other in the dark woods.

Barred owl pairs stay together for life. For most of the year each owl lives on its own, close to its mate, and the family stays together only from the nesting season until the young leave.

Barred owls hunt mostly at night, but they are sometimes seen and heard in the daytime. If something disturbs them, they call to other barred owls nearby.

The ADW account (2000) describes barred owls as monogamous, pairing for life. They live alone for most of the year and in family groups only from the breeding season until the young leave the nest. Mated pairs usually live in neighboring home ranges, which overlap more during the breeding season, and owls call to others of their species when disturbed.

Eggs and nestlings may be taken by raccoons and weasels, and adults sometimes by great horned owls and northern goshawks (ADW).

There are lots of barred owls.

They have moved into new forests in the west.

The barred owl is listed as Least Concern. Experts estimated about 3.5 million grown-up barred owls in 2020, and their number is growing.

During the 1900s, barred owls spread into forests in the north-west of the United States and in western Canada. There they came into competition with a close relative, the spotted owl, which was already in trouble. In parts of the south, barred owls may have declined where swamps were lost (Kenn Kaufman, 1996).

BirdLife International assessed Strix varia as Least Concern for the IUCN Red List (assessed 12 June 2024, published 2024), with an increasing trend. IUCN cites a Partners in Flight (2020) estimate of 3,500,000 mature individuals, nearly all in the United States and Canada, and notes that although tree cover within its mapped range fell by 18.5% over three generations (23 years), the North American population shows a slightly positive annual trend. The species was found in three of seven wildlife-trade datasets evaluated by Donald and colleagues (2024).

Kaufman's 1996 account, used by Audubon, called it still widespread and common, though it may have declined in parts of the south with the loss of swamp habitat. Its spread into the Pacific Northwest has brought it into competition, and some hybridization, with the spotted owl, adding stress to that already endangered owl's populations (ADW, 2000).