IBRC 56-B-11

IDAHO BIRD RECORDS COMMITTEE
RARE BIRD REPORT FORM

SPECIES: barred owl
HOW MANY: one adult

REPORTER: George Zickefoose 2975 Autumn Way Meridian, Idaho 208-884-5130 REPORTER EMAIL: gjzickefoose@gmail.com
OTHER OBSERVERS: George and Janet Zickefoose,

DATE REPORT PREPARED: October 10, 2011
DATE SIGHTING OCCURRED: October 9, 2011

LOCALITY OF OBSERVATION: Ada County Eagle Road and St. Luke's Dr.
HABITAT: backyard trees
CONDITIONS: Over a period of weeks at dawn and dusk this owl flew into/out of the dense trees in our backyard. Identification was made after two episodes occurred, Saturday October 9 and Sunday October 10, 2011. Both times our attention was drawn to the flurry of crows in unusual pademodium in and about the trees in our backyard. Then we would see the owl in unusual daytime appearances in mid-afternoon. The owl seemed to be at the same time, defending itself from the crows while attacking a nearby squirrel and made one flight toward it. It was after this that the owl escaped the crows into the denser tree cover. It was there that I found it Sunday afternoon drowsing-resting on a lower branch than I would have expected making it available for the photos that accompany this report.

DID YOU TAKE NOTES?: Yes, later the same day
DID YOU CONSULT FIELD GUIDE OR OTHER REFERENCES?: Yes, later the same day
WHAT GUIDE(S) OR REFERENCE(S) DID YOU CONSULT?: A Field Guide to Western Birds, R. T. Peterson, 1961. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds Western Region, 1987. also a friend's Sibley's Bird Book

DESCRIPTION: Owl Oval face disc featuring large dark eyes; speckled feathers surrounding the face disc; with no "ear tufts";when sitting erect would appear to be over 20 inches tail to top; less than that when settled to rest (as the pictures will show); vertical stripes on the belly; wide dark bands horizontal on the tail feathers;
BEHAVIOR: no feeding observations made, but we do have discharged pellets at the base of our trees; observations, besides the above described, included the dawn arrival at the trees in our back yard and the out-flight at dusk from them over a period of weeks; as for interactions with other birds, the above-described apparent hostilities between crows and the owl; a kestrel also was sounding an alarm from a perch high above the owl as it roosted on the branch below.

HOW AND WHEN DID YOU POSITIVELY IDENTIFY THE BIRD, AND WHAT CLINCHED THE IDENTIFICATION FOR YOU? After the photo-siting, I referred to my bird books and conferred with my friend, Keith Ricketts, former biology teacher in Meridian School District. The most striking marks were the dark eyes, the veritcal striping of the belly and the large size.
HOW DID YOU ELIMINATE SIMILAR SPECIES, AND WHAT WERE THEY? The spotted owl would be similar but with a spotted belly rather than the sripes of the barred owl

EXPERIENCE WITH THIS SPECIES (AND SIMILAR SPECIES): this is the first experience with the barred owl. We had previously observed a barn owl roosting daytimes during a three week period in a previous summer high in our chestnut tree. The pellets he dropped caught our attention, and the pellets began to reappear this year and we assumed the barn owl was back. Thus our surprise when it was the barred owl which seems to be out of its normal range.
GENERAL BIRDING EXPERIENCE: Very casual, but attentive to the unusual over several decades. Strictly a hobbiest.
WERE PHOTO(S), VIDEO, AND/OR AUDIO OBTAINED BY YOU?: Photo

Photos below taken by Christopher Horel on 8 October 2011.