Which owl made this noise?
Asked by
rowenaz (
2441)
July 21st, 2009
I’ve tried to identify it on 10 different sites, but I can only narrow it down to a Long-eared Owl, or a Great Horned Owl. The pattern is different though. It went:
Hoo-Hoo, Hoo-Hoo, Hoooooo
Hoo-Hoo, Hoo-Hoo, Hoooooo
and it was always those five even calls. There was no vibration or screeching.
Thanks for your help!
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10 Answers
Connecticut – and it definitely wasn’t a barn owl. Thanks for the second on the GHO!
Barred, much different than Barn.
Good luck!
Not the barred, it’s not the WHO COOKS FOR YOU, WHO COOKS FOR YOU ALL. I tried the owling site, now I’ll try toe owlcam, thanks.
I would have said Bubo Bubo ( Eurasian eagle owl ), but mine never made tho “Hoooooo” at the end . Tho during certain calls it did “Hoooooo” only .
When it comes to Barred Owls, the male calls like you pointed out, and the female has the trill at the end of her call. I’ve always been fascinated by the owls around here, they are awesome creatures.
In CT, Barred and Great Horned would be the most common and the most likely. The calls can vary slightly by location and even by neighborhoods. The robins’s song in Philadelphia was slightly different from their singing in rural NYS.
I just checked my new birding book. Great Horned would be the most likely; the syllabification was listed as similar to yours.
Voice “Song a deep, muffled hooting in rhythmic series hoo hoodoo hoooo hoo or longer ho hoo hoo hoododo hooooo hoo; only slightly deeper than Mourning Dove. Female voice higher-pitched than male; courting female answers male with low, nasal, barking guwaay. Juvenile begs with high, wheezy, scratchy, or hoarse bark reeeek or sheew or cheeoip; variable, usually shorter and less rasping than Barn Owl but some very similar.”
Mourning Dove
Yes, I think it must have been a female!
Great horned owl seems right, They can also make a variety of screeching and hissing noises when angry or courting! Hope this helped!
Even though Im new to this website, I am not new to birding! :)
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