Barred Owls are easiest to find when they are active at night, but this particular owl is nesting just outside an upstairs bedroom window at a friend's house. So as not to disturb her, the photos were taken through the glass and a window screen. There are small owlets in the nest.
Barred Owls are easier to hear than to see. Their call of 'Who cooks for you' is frequently heard in the woods around my house, they prefer woodlands, wooded river bottoms, wooded swamps.
Their coloring helps this owl blend into the dappled sunlight filtering through branches and leaves and they are hard to see.
When nesting, Barred Owls do little or nothing to improve an existing tree cavity. They mate for life, and they usually lay two or three white eggs each year. The male hunts for food while the female spends a month sitting on the eggs.
