An Amazing World of Owls

BirdNote®
An Amazing World of Owls
Written by Conor Gearin

This is BirdNote.

Today is International Owl Awareness Day. Owls are magnificent animals that share our cities with us, like Great Horned Owls…

    [Great Horned Owl call]

…and live in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, like Snowy Owls on the Arctic tundra.

    [Snowy Owl call]

They range in size from huge, like the Blakiston’s Fish-Owl of Eastern Asia…

    [Blakiston’s Fish-Owl call]

…to the songbird-sized Elf Owl of Mexico and the Southwest US, less than six inches tall and weighing less than half a deck of cards.

    [Elf Owl calls]

Owls play key roles in their ecosystems. They keep prey populations of rodents and insects in check, which in turn helps promote a healthy balance of the species eaten by those animals. Owls even help control pests like non-native rodents where people live, all without traps or poison.

And they lend their music to our nights.

    [Barred Owl duet]

By giving these amazing birds their space when they’re nesting, preserving habitats where they breed and hunt, and avoiding rodenticides that could poison their prey, we can help ensure a safe future for our world’s incredible owls.

For BirdNote, I’m Ariana Remmel.

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Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. ML22874 Recorded by William R. Fish. ML138288 Recorded by Gerrit Vyn. ML182695611 Recorded by Andrew Spencer. ML105533 Recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller. ML134150 Recorded by Gerrit Vyn.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote August 2024
Narrator: Ariana Remmel

ID# owl-10-2024-08-04    owl-10