Whooooo said that? The distinct voices of owls

Since tomorrow is All Souls’ Day (and last night was Halloween), when people’s thoughts turn to ghosts and spooky animals, I thought I’d share this fun little video about owls and their distinct voices. As you’ll hear in this video, each owl species has its own special voice just as they have their own distinctive appearance.

This video discusses several North American owls (most of which reside on the eastern side of the USA and Canada). One of those species is the barn owl, Tyto alba. The barn owl is special because it is one of the most widely-distributed birds in the world, being found almost everywhere except polar and desert regions -- it’s even found on the south Pacific islands throughout much of Indonesia! So widespread is this particular owl -- with many distinct regional forms, each with different sizes and plumage colourings -- that it’s thought to actually be comprised of as many as physically similar five species, although future DNA work will shed more light on this complex and fascinating group of birds.

And as for the barn owl’s voice, well, I think it’s the most “Halloween” sounding owl voice in this video -- a piercing shriek. Combine that with the barn owl’s silent flight and pale, almost ghostly appearance, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a bird that can sneak up behind you in the dark and produce a sudden shriek, giving you an intense fright.

Which owl’s call sounds most like what you imagine to be a “Halloween owl”?

This video was created by the Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University. Cornell’s Lab of O can be found on twitter @CornellBirds.

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When she’s not out birding, GrrlScientist can also be found here: Maniraptora. She’s very active on twitter @GrrlScientist and lurks on social media: facebook, G+, LinkedIn, vProud and Pinterest.