The Sounds of Hungry Owlets
Baby Great Horned Owls can grow as big as their parents, with a noisy appetite to boot.
This story is brought to you by BirdNote, a show that airs daily on public radio stations nationwide.
High in a tall cottonwood tree, a pair of Great Horned Owls is tending two nestlings. The young owlets emerged from their eggs in early spring. When the young birds finally put on a second set of down feathers, the parents could leave them alone while they hunted.
By mid-April, the nestlings were already showing their namesake ear-tufts. About that time, they began to leave their big stick nest to climb along the tree’s branches. What a noisy pair, waiting impatiently for their parents to deliver food!
Now in May, the Great Horned Owlets are as big as the adults. Their wing and tail feathers have developed nicely, so the owlets have begun making short flights. Yet they still rely almost entirely on their parents for food.
On a recent evening, the adults presented the owlets with a young striped skunk, at two pounds, a sizeable—if somewhat odiferous—meal. These owls are the only birds that regularly dine on these smelly creatures.
See photos of Great Horned Owls, young and old, watch videos, and more at birdnote.org.
Bird sounds are provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Adult duet recorded by W.R. Fish. Owlets recorded by D.T. Spaulding. Immature Great Horned Owls screeching recorded by C. Peterson. BirdNote's theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and produced by John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
Written by Bob Sundstrom
© 2015 Tune In to Nature.org May 2015 Narrator: Mary McCann