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In the Dark with Boreal Owls
These nocturnal predators are specialized for hunting in northern forests.
© sduben/Canva
Boreal Owls are highly adapted to hunt in long hours of winter darkness. Uniquely, one ear opening in the skull is set high and the other much lower, an asymmetry that helps to pinpoint the sound of tiny rodents under the snow. They also have a pronounced disk of feathers encircling their faces that funnels sound to the ears. The staccato notes of the male’s song can carry for more than a mile on spring nights.
BirdNote®
In the Dark with Boreal Owls
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
[Boreal Owl song]
In the darkness of a northern forest — the hooting of a Boreal Owl:
[Boreal Owl song]
This is the male owl’s song. These staccato notes can continue for more than an hour and carry for more than a mile.
Boreal Owls have a large head rimmed in black, yellow eyes, and dark plumage speckled heavily with white.
[Boreal Owl call]
They’re highly adapted to hunt in the north’s long hours of winter darkness. One ear opening in the skull is set high and the other much lower, an asymmetry that helps pinpoint the sound of tiny rodents under the snow. They have a pronounced disk of feathers around their faces that funnels sound to the ears. Boreal Owls can plunge their talons through inches of snow-covered ground to capture small mammals like voles.
[Boreal Owl song]
In most birds of prey, females are bigger than males. Boreal Owls are an extreme case, with females sometimes twice the weight of their mate. Greater size lets females take on larger prey than males, so they don’t compete as much for the same meal.
[Boreal Owl song]
On a moonless spring night, the songs of Boreal Owls echo across Alaska and Canada, and from Scandinavia to Siberia.
[Boreal Owl song]
For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
This episode is sponsored by Gary and Elizabeth Kennedy Ketcheson to honor the mystique and magnificence of owls.
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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. Boreal Owl ML194966 recorded by Lucas DeCicco, and Boreal Owl ML268158081 recorded by Joshua Covill.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote March 2024
Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# BOOW-01-2024-03-25 BOOW-01
References:
https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v098n03/p0387-…
https://www.owlpages.com/owls/species.php?s=3020
Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Michael Stein
NarratorSights & Sounds
